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Industrial Unrest 


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Copyrighted, 1920, by 

THE LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL JOURNAL CO. 
British and translation rights reserved. 


Published by 

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4084-5 Arcade Building 
Seattle, Wash. 


















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Copyrighted, 1920, by 

THE LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL JOURNAL CO. 


British and translation rights reserved. 


Published by 

THE LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL JOURNAL CO. 
4084-5 Arcade Building 
Seattle, Wash. 



























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The Cause and Cure 

of 

Industrial Unrest 

E. B. FISH 



SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 
1920 


























































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E. B. FISH 







FOREWORD 


During twenty years as a journalist in close con¬ 
nection with the Labor Movement I have had occa¬ 
sion to peruse many volumes which could rightly be 
considered under the above caption. But none of 
these volumes went to the heart of the matter. They 
were professional, pedagogic, or merely echoes of 
European Socialism with its incompatability of tem¬ 
perament for Americans. 

The work of E. B. Fish, however, is a revelation. 
It comes glowing hot from the anvils of a worker’s 
struggles. It beats out the metal of Resentment to 
Wrong and undemocratic methods in workingmen 
and employers. Its sparks of inspiration fly from the 
hammer of individual experience. And its American 
sentiment, once placed in action, will go far to heal 
our unrest. 

The chapters which deal with THE CAUSE are 
a veritable education in present and chronic dis¬ 
content. 

The Employer who reads them sincerely will get 



6 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

tl clear vision of the disruptive forces at work among 
the toilers; and the worker will find sympathetic 
rendering of the suppression he has met equally at 
the hands of tyrannical bosses and the all-powerful 
Union officials. 

The democratic principles laid down in The Cure 
are built on the needs of the heart and follow the 
infallible experience of men who have succeeded in 
solving these everyday problems in an American 
way along identical lines. 

The whole forms a human document with the 
first lines written at the machines during the war in 
the Sumner Iron Works, Everett, followed up while 
on a speaking tour among the lumber camps of the 
Northwest and brought to a close in the office of the 
Labor and Industrial Journal. 

It creates the impression of an ardent battler for 
the Right imbued with a vision of American Democ¬ 
racy applied to our Industrial Unrest. A vision 
which will carry the seer far up the paths of Re¬ 
construction to pinnacles of American manhood ad¬ 
ministering the principles of our Constitution in The 
Industrial Democracy of tomorrow. 

HERBERT FORDER. 


THE CAUSE AND CURE OF 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST 


CHAPTER I. 

The cause and cure of industrial unrest is a subject 
dealing with one of the most important of human 
relationships. The relationship of employe to em¬ 
ployer. In a more restricted sense, of capital and 
labor. 

The whole discussion must be raised at once from 
the low level of an impersonal heartless thing called 
capital and its relationship to a more or less imper¬ 
sonal and heartless machine called labor. Therefore, 
we say, this phase of the subject, capital and labor, 
enters into our discussion in a restricted sense only. 

Capital is the means men (human beings) use to 
further certain plans and projects. Labor is what 
certain other men (human beings) furnish to further 
certain plans and projects. These human beings have 
a mutuality of interests. The success and prosperity 
of one spells the success and prosperity of the other. 



8 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

If one element fails in this great combine, for in¬ 
stance the employer, the employee suffers. If, on 
the other hand, the employee is unhappy, discontent¬ 
ed and rebellious, the employer faces loss, if not fail¬ 
ure. Now, because those furnishing the means and 
direction of industry are human beings, “mere folks,” 
and those furnishing the skill and energy and labor, 
upon which industry is built are “mere folks,” and 
because these humans have a mutuality of interests, 
and because their combined enterprise furnishes the 
very sinews of prosperity, in fact, advances or jeop¬ 
ardizes the very existence of our civilization, it fol¬ 
lows that any discussion offered in contribution to 
an amicable, satisfactory and fair adjustment of that 
relationship is of vital moment. 

If an intelligent being from Mars should suddenly 
find himself on our planet and in the United States of 
America, and possessed of no knowledge of the basic 
principles, or primary declarations of our national 
life, he would be immediately impressed that Amer¬ 
ica was divided into two great hostile camps. If, in 
addition, he should be unfortunate enough to drop 
into a meeting of radical employers or a gathering of 
disturbed and rebellious workers, and if, after a little 
further acquaintance, he should learn the great motto 
of our national unity, “E Pluribus Unum,” he would 
be affrighted at our condition, and would most surely 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 9 

predict our utter and speedy ruination as a great 
people. 

As we see it, his opinions would not be far astray. 
Verily a crisis confronts us. A world atmosphere of 
revolution surrounds us. The black clouds of gath¬ 
ering storms approach. The sullen mutter of the 
angry elements, even now, are heard. Athwart the 
sky of America’s national existence, shoots the 
forked flame of uncontrolled human hate and pas¬ 
sion, while following in the wake of the furious 
blast, the black vultures of anarchy and hell wait to 
feed upon the carcass of what was once proud, suc¬ 
cessful and hopeful America. 

“Alarmist!” you cry. Yes, if you will, but in the 
same sense that watchers at the wrecked bridge 
make frantic efforts to stop the mad rush of the on¬ 
coming express. In the same sense as “alarmists” 
at Johnstown sought to give warning of the swiftly 
approaching and fearful flood. Would to God we had 
the speed and trumpet of the Arch Angel; we would 
blow a blast from Maine to California, from our 
northern boundary to the Gulf of Mexico, which 
would alarm, arouse and awaken this country to see 
the lurid blasts from hell which approach and which 
carry on their fiery pinions the elements which mean 
wreck, devastation and death, and thus save by 


10 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

11 alarming, ’ ’ if you please, our land from the fury of 
the storm. 

We add our voice to a multitude of others who see 
and realize the grave outlook. Hopeless ? No; we 
believe America holds within herself the magic of 
speedy and permanent safety. 

If we were to pass a criticism on our national 
temper, it would be that we lack the balance neces¬ 
sary to true perspective. We fly to extremes. We 
blow hot and cold. We cry aloud at the approaching 
crisis (and our people can face it as bravely as any), 
only to sink back again into blissful indifference, 
because of momentary adjustment. Today a coal 
strike paralyzes industry, causes untold suffering 
and misery, tomorrow it is settled for the moment 
and we are satisfied. It matters not if the very set¬ 
tlement carry seeds of further and greater trouble. 
Oh that we could learn the tenacity, energy and 
blind faith of revolutionary mania. Oh, that we 
could learn that sowing seeds of injustice to the wind 
is sure to bring the reaping time of whirlwind. In a 
word, if we could only learn that the great problem 
of industrial relationship is not settled until it is 
settled once and for all; that seeming settlements, 
appearances, do not suffice; that the problem must be 
threshed out from, and on, the very foundations of 
our government; that we must come out of the bogs 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 11 

of dollars and cents, hours and working conditions, 
to the sunlit summits of American Brotherhood. 
Then, and then only, man to man, in an atmosphere 
from which the fog of suspicion and anarchy has 
been dispelled by the favoring breath of patriotic 
kindness and sympathy, we may look into each 
other’s faces and own kinship in the great family 
of free people. 


CHAPTER II. 


We have endeavored to indicate in onr introduc¬ 
tory chapter the plane upon which we wish to discuss 
this momentous subject. Would that with one stroke 
we could bring the multitude to understand, that 
all the cures offered for our industrial and social ills, 
the curative principles of which are not founded 
upon a proper understanding of the parties involved 
are the cheapest kind of quackery. 

We must insist that capital on the one hand and 
labor on the other, considered as mere machines, do 
not furnish the proper basis for discussion and settle¬ 
ment. What is behind capital? What is behind 
labor, which is organized and sold in lump by labor 
leaders on the basis of highest concession? The an¬ 
swer indicates the true place of consideration, and 
any school boy can furnish it. Behind capital is 
intelligent directing and (would that we could hon¬ 
estly say, in every instance) sympathetic, human 
personality. On the other hand, labor is furnished 
by intelligent, active men and women. 

We are going to risk the criticism of sameness and 
repetition to drive home the thought that we are not 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 13 

dealing in any primary sense with a machine nor a 
commodity. Because, in so far as money is the sole 
object and purpose of organization on the part of 
any man, hfe becomes sordid and his machine a heart¬ 
less monster incapable of sympathetic touch and bent 
on sweeping into the maw of its greed, even the 
helpless and weak. Some may resent this statement 
but we propose to put the knife into the sore and that 
without fear or favor. Our humble heart has gone out 
in sympathy on more than one occasion towards 
certain heads of big business who were, personally, 
the finest kind of men, but who were, nevertheless, 
being most woefully misrepresented by a soulless in¬ 
human machine of their own creation, the sole pur¬ 
pose of which was the making of money. 

These observations apply with equal pertinency, 
though from a different angle, to the other side. 
Workers, to protect themselves, have banded to¬ 
gether in various organizations, and these have 
reached a place of power, so great that American 
toilers dominated by red autocrats, have been led to 
the very brink of ruin. We are not opposed to or¬ 
ganization, but there is a third party interested in 
this struggle, one who has gone through untold suf¬ 
fering, and who now begins to speak, and upon 
whose attitude and decisions in the final analysis, 
all depends. Meet then, my friends, (captains of in- 


14 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

dust^ and leaders of labor), our erstwhile silent, 
suffering but now relentless critic and friend, “the 
public.” He announces the opinions of the consum¬ 
ers, the unorganized business and working man. He 
says ‘‘Organize if you will, but please remember that 
America is not going to be organized to death, and 
that from now on, we are going to insist that, like 
the crimson thread which runs through the cordage 
of the British Navy, there shall run throughout the 
various ramifications of your respective organiza¬ 
tions the, red blood of humanity and freedom.” 

No matter how it may run counter to our 
notions, we are never going to reach a sat¬ 
isfactory solution of the industrial puzzle un¬ 
til we accept the position which is so per¬ 
fects obvious that it needs no argument to sustain 
it; that industry rests, as to stability and develop¬ 
ment, upon the shoulders, hearts and minds of men 
and the industrial relation is a relationship, not of 
machine to machine, but of man to man. Then, when 
we further consider, that involved in this there is 
the further relationship of the public with is multi¬ 
plied thousands of helpless men, women and chil¬ 
dren and that above all is the relationship of this 
combined mass of feeling, thinking, active, human 
beings to the traditions, laws, and customs of Amer¬ 
ica, we have a problem of tremendous scope, and one 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 15 

which at first appears hopelessly intricate; but let 
the parties concerned once break through the con¬ 
fusion and suspicion which now separates them, and 
look each other in the eyes like American free men, 
and recognize that they are human brothers with 
common sorrows, joys and aspirations, and the bat¬ 
tle is half won, for we are on the common ground 
of settlement. 


CHAPTER III. 


Having once settled in our minds what is an all- 
too-often forgotten, yet perfectly evident fact that, 
the industrial stability and enterprise of the country 
depends upon the satisfactory relationship of man to 
man, instead of machine to machine, we proceed to 
analyze the cause of the great unrest which is dis¬ 
turbing our land and which is bound to obtain unless 
we grasp a thorough understanding of certain basic 
facts upon which we must work out a settlement of 
our troubles. 

First, then, we set it down as a general proposition 
to be proved by subsequent discussion, that the un¬ 
derlying cause of unrest is due to a failure to com¬ 
ply with, or a departure from, certain simple Amer¬ 
ican principles which we, as citizens, once took 
great pride in adhering to in our relations one with 
another. Many will not accept this simple state¬ 
ment, for the very plain and quite sufficient reason 
that their whole philosophy of industrial relations 
is founded upon a false premise. They argue thus: 
“Here is my employer representing hundreds of 
thousands of invested capital, making money hand 


17 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

over fist, and here am I with absolutely nothing but 
my labor power to sell, and having a difficult time 
to drag out a miserable existence. What two propo¬ 
sitions could be farther apart than our interests 

Before examining this position, suffer us to state 
that we have purposely set the case in as strong a 
light as possible. The statement that the employer 
“is making money hand over fist” is incapable of 
general application. Frequently he faces actual loss 
and plunges into ruin. Likewise the employe is not 
generally speaking dragging out a miserable exist¬ 
ence—more frequently he is comfortable and getting 
along prosperously. 

The idea that so-called capital and labor have no 
common interests, and that there can be no satisfac¬ 
tory compromise or understanding between them, is 
one of the main contentions of the I. W. W., and this 
teaching has entered the minds of untold thousands 
of workers, who do not carry a Red card and would 
fight in an instant were they called “wobbly,” and 
it would appear at first sight that the same perni¬ 
cious notion has entered into the thinking of some 
employers, and when once this erroneous position is 
accepted, the inexorable logic of the thing forces both 
employer and employe to the inevitable and destruct¬ 
ive conclusion that, because they haven’t anything in 
common, they must take steps to protect their sepa- 


18 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

rate interests. Result—organization, not for co-op¬ 
eration, but for warfare and clash of interests. 

We readily admit what no one but a fool would 
deny, that reasons have existed on both sides for 
flight to organization to save the situation from in¬ 
tolerable industrial autocracy on the one hand, or of 
radical and unreasonable labor demands on the other. 
But, nevertheless, here are two organizations, founded 
upon the false supposition that the employe has no 
concern for the well-being or success of the employ¬ 
er, and vice-versa. That each is trying to get all 
possible out of the other and give as little as possi¬ 
ble in return. 

Now, as these two supposedly opposing elements 
increase in organized strength, strife, suspicion and 
antagonism gather power and it does not take a 
philosopher to see that no industrial situation can be 
peaceful and satisfactory where such organized an¬ 
tagonism exists. 

Observe first, the employer and employe are or¬ 
ganized away from each other, whereas the purpose 
of organization should be to bring them closer to¬ 
gether. Second, as they get farther apart, it becomes 
increasingly easy for misunderstanding and sus¬ 
picions to exist and develop, and where such condi¬ 
tions exist there can be no candid and open discus¬ 
sion, and where open discussion is impossible, co-op- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 19 

eration and conciliation flee and confusion worse 
confounded reigns. Third, they get into widely 
separated camps, where demagogues and radical 
leaders make capital of their confusion and they be¬ 
come easy prey to any kind of loud-mouthed, fly-by- 
night schemes. Fourth, that most vital and alto¬ 
gether essential thing which we call human touch, 
is lost; henceforth they are enemies, torn by jealousy 
and strife and watching each other’s every movement 
like beasts of the jungle. From this situation arise ten 
thousand different conditions and symptoms which 
certain kinds of leaders and hot-air artists seize upon 
and point to as cause, which in fact are merely ef¬ 
fects. 

But here we have as plain a departure from simple, 
yet all-important American priciple as could be well 
imagined. We have forgotten that the American 
citizen, who works with his hands for a livelihood, is 
a man—a human being. We have been looking and 
dealing with him as a cog in a machine, and a mem¬ 
ber of a militant labor organization which is bent 
on cramping and hindering our activities and suc¬ 
cess. No marvel, for employers have certainly had 
reason to view labor in that light. We have for¬ 
gotten also that the American employer is likewise 
a man, a mere human being. A man subject to like 
passions as we are. That he has problems under 


20 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

which many of us would collapse and fail. That he 
covets and appreciates sympathetic co-operation, and 
that he wishes and works for our good, the while 
he seeks to advance his own fortune. That he takes 
great financial risks—works long hours to make his 
venture a success, and we who should prosper as he 
succeeds, all too often appear ready to throw a 
monkey-wrench into the machinery. 

To be sure, some one will ask, “Are all employers 
thus minded?” No, but all genuinely American em¬ 
ployers are. For Americanism is a spiritual thing, a 
virtue akin to loyalty to one’s God, and the man ac¬ 
tuated by its spirit, be he poor or rich, believes in a 
certain fundamental equality which spells “my 
brother’s keeper,” and whether you like it or not, re¬ 
member it was a murderous Cain who slew his broth¬ 
er—who first tried to shift that great but pleasant 
responsibility. 

Honesty demands we admit that if blame is to 
be fixed for first departure from the simple prin¬ 
ciple of American brotherhood in industry it would 
rest largely at the door of certain kinds of industrial 
autocrats. More heartless, inhuman Czars never 
lived than some heads of big enterprises, who have 
scattered the seeds of injustice to the winds, and 
employers of our day, many of them just and hon¬ 
orable, are reaping the harvest. If we must have an 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 21 

autocracy in the United States, let us build one 
founded upon the accident of birth rather than upon 
the sordid foundation of wealth. If that is not satis¬ 
factory, and we must have autocracy in the United 
States, give us that founded upon wealth, as much as 
we hate it, in preference to that based upon the 
brute force of numbers and more times than not led 
by the ignorant, such as the Bolshevist and I. W. W. 
Yes, we have these industrial and labor czars with 
us today, but remember public opinion is a colossus 
that will surely pull these little potentates from their 
shaky thrones and bump their heads together until 
they see the stars of American democracy every¬ 
where in the firmament of their activities. 

This country we tell you again is America, and we 
are not going to have any kind of autocratic minor¬ 
ities or personalities bossing this country. 

That the necessity for understanding on the basis 
of the principle for which we contend is being gen¬ 
erally recognized, we have great reason to believe; 
signs are favorable and are multiplying. We were 
much impressed recently by a remark made by an 
employer of large calibre: “Possibly we are some¬ 
what to blame for the situation, but after a while 
they (employes) will realize that we are just com¬ 
mon human beings.” The same feeling was ex¬ 
pressed in somewhat different language by an hon- 


22 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

est, but outspoken longshoreman at the conclusion 
of a meeting we were holding in Seattle on the water¬ 
front recently, with a great preamble of cuss words 
he said: “Don’t they (the employers) know we are 
also human beings ? ’ ’ 

There you have it. We all come from different 
stratas of America’s social life—this must needs be, 
for we run together socially, according to our affini¬ 
ties, tastes and qualifications, but after all, we are all 
members of a common family, and there is no relation 
in all our multiform life where this needs greater 
emphasis and recognition than in American industry. 

Some small mentality is going to object that our 
modern industrial life is too intricate and complex 
to adopt such principles. We are going to discuss 
this in a later chapter, but for the present we want 
to refer you to George F. Johnson’s labor creed, “A 
great industrial establishment should, as closely as 
possible, follow the old idea of small business, in 
which the master had his shop and his house adjoin¬ 
ing, and he and his workers and apprentices lived, as 
well as worked, together.” This is taken from an 
article in the current issue of “System” entitled, 
“Thirty Years Without a Strike.” We do not 
recommend Mr. Johnson’s practices, but from this 
setting of plain words a jewel of principle sparkles, 
viz.: that of fellowship—humanity and brotherhood. 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


23 


This we most seriously recommend to any one who 
employs or who toils. No wonder he could say, “We 
have been in business for thirty years without a 
strike—have risen from a few hundred to more than 
thirteen thousand men—and have increased our an¬ 
nual sales from less than $600,000 a year to $75,- 
000 , 000 .” 

It was the active presence of this human touch of 
brotherhood in a square-toed American employ¬ 
er which saved this writer from utter and 
irreparable ruin, and the absence of it in American 
industry has more to do with the existing confusion 
and the necessity which rests upon us as workers 
today of breaking down the power of an autocratic 
labor machine, than any other one thing. 


CHAPTER IV. 


In our last chapter attention was called to the fact 
that the workers, and a considerable number of em¬ 
ployers, were engaged in organizing to protect their 
so-called separate interests. We pointed out also 
that all industrial organizations not founded upon 
the idea that the interests of employer and employe 
are identical, were wrong. In other words, organiza¬ 
tion must be for co-operation instead of combat. We 
indicated our belief also that much of the present day 
organization was tearing us away from certain 
fundamental American principles, especially the 
recognition of common membership in a great family 
of free people, and the American doctrine of co-op¬ 
eration in industry. 

In this chapter we wish to further pursue this 
thought in its relation to the spirit and activities of 
the present day labor movement. We are going to 
say some plain things. Therefore, we feel it incum¬ 
bent upon us to acknowledge the good which union 
labor has accomplished, and, under certain condi¬ 
tions, might still accomplish. But most surely not 
in the way it has been directed and in the spirit it 


25 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

has manifested during the last few years. On the 
other hand we hold that when industry is sufficiently 
Americanized, union labor as we now know it, will 
quietly pass away. 

But to resume, much is being said at present about 
the disloyalty of labor. We have always maintained, 
however, that labor as a whole is patriotic and loyal, 
and yet we are confronted with the outstanding fact, 
that the I. W. W. and kindred radical movements 
have not only shot the ranks of labor through and 
through with un-American spirit, but that in many lo¬ 
calities, radical elements entirely dominate and speak 
for union labor. It is no secret, for instance, that 
the leader of one of the greatest strikes in our his¬ 
tory—the steel strike—could not entirely clear him¬ 
self from the charge of active, revolutionary sym¬ 
pathy. The strike has been lost—mainly as a result 
of this leadership. 

One is led to inquire “why is it that foreign, un- 
American theories of government have taken root so 
quickly in our unions and the labor movement has ap¬ 
parently lent itself so readily to extreme and radical 
notions? Some one is going to object, “the writer is 
forgetting the loyalty of labor during the war.” Oh! 
no! not at all! neither is he forgetting that many 
unions went on strike for bigger wages, shorter 
hours, double time for overtime, and what-not, dur- 


26 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ing the same war, and this while American boys were 
jeopardizing their lives in the disease-breeding 
trenches of the Old World—working day and night 
for thirty dollars a month—constantly in danger of 
actual annihilation for need of some of the very 
things their striking brothers could have produced 
for them. Yes, we hear the old argumentative ques¬ 
tion “What were the capitalists doing during the 
war? They made untold-millions, etc., etc.” Granted, 
some of them were far from being good Americans, 
but as an argument, this is the merest “bunk” and 
does not in any sense constitute a justification for 
any of labor’s disloyal acts. Two wrongs never 
make a right. Let us admit that some employers 
were greedy and took advantage of conditions to 
amass great fortunes, though God alone knows how 
the country could have been saved had it not been 
for the money, the brains and the active participa¬ 
tion of America’s industrial leaders in the prosecu¬ 
tion of the war. But is labor guiltless in this respect 
(taking advantage of war conditions to further its 
own ends) did we not profit by the war? Did not 
certain elements in labor as much as say “Now is 
our chance, they need us—we will fix them—this is 
our day, come through?” And did not labor, in the 
main, roll in prosperity? Mere boys made wages 
which would in prewar times have staggered the most 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 27 

seasoned and experienced skilled men. “The high cost 
of living?” Yes. On the other hand workers 
bought automobiles, diamonds, sealskin coats, silk 
shirts, etc. Sure, workers are entitled to the best 
possible, but let us not deny that union labor took 
great advantage of war conditions to further its 
own aims and seat itself firmly as a dictator in indus¬ 
trial affairs, and when their demands were not imme¬ 
diately met, strikes and walk-outs occurred. Have 
we forgotten so soon that the Government had to 
threaten? Think of it—threaten American work¬ 
ing men, with service on the firing line, to get suffi¬ 
cient workers. “Work or Fight” sent more than 
one fellow to a he-man’s job during the war. 

Were the employers wrong? You say they were. 
We hold no brief for them. But they didn’t strike— 
they didn’t lay off—and many of America’s leading 
men worked for your Uncle Sam for a dollar a year, 
while others turned their plants over to government 
work and some suffered great loss. Let us admit 
they were all you say they were, a bunch of greedy, 
grasping, un-American capitalists. But what then? 
Does that justify labor? “But labor did all the 
working and all the fighting and the rich men used 
their money to buy sons and themselves out of the 
army.” Of course, labor wasn’t guilty of claiming 
industrial exemption and securing it too, and using 


28 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

it to strike on the job, hiding behind steel plates 
fifteen or twenty minutes before the whistle blew, 
and agitating strikes and walkouts. Those who live 
in glass houses must not throw stones. And just 
what is meant by union labor doing all the working 
and all the fighting? The sons of some of America’s 
most prominent men volunteered for service and 
many of them paid the great price, and while it is 
true that the American army was made up to a 
large extent of working men and working men’s 
sons, that indicates nothing more than that we work¬ 
ing men are in the majority, and we must remember 
too that the majority of American toilers are not 
organized. Therefore, this wild claim of union labor 
is the merest nonsense. Surely, labor suffered 
greatly, but there is many an employer in America 
who would give all his gold to have once more at his 
side the son he loved and has lost awhile. 

It gets really tiresome to hear this continual prat¬ 
tle about labor’s patriotism during the war. Let us 
gladly and thankfully admit that the great ma¬ 
jority of America’s toilers were and are patriotic. 
Honesty also demands that we admit that many of 
them were poorly led, and we are going to acknowl¬ 
edge further, because it indicates the anemic condi¬ 
tion into which America has fallen, that this country 
was not so feverishly patriotic that there was any 


29 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

danger of our fulfilling Mr. Bryan’s famous prophecy 
“a million men will spring to arms over night.” In 
addition, we are going to recall that while our brave 
boys were dying in France to save democratic insti¬ 
tutions, certain agitators were going over the coun¬ 
try inciting to rebellion against the Draft Law, and 
making frantic endeavors to break the morale of 
the people at home by denominating the war a cap¬ 
italistic fight. We also recollect that after these 
same agitators were arrested and jailed for their 
devilish actions, strikes, revolutions and other ex¬ 
treme measures were threatened unless they were 
released. 

Does any fellow worker resent this arraignment? 
We cannot blame him, but it is true nevertheless and 
the only way for labor to clear itself is to dump the 
radicals, incendiaries, and anarchists overboard and 
do it quickly. It is much more pleasant to think we 
all willingly did our bit to whip Kaiser Bill, and this 
writer has a disposition to forget and leave it there. 
But when the wily agitator wants to camouflage his 
attack or cover his retreat, he throws out a great 
barrage of talk about the patriotism of union labor 
during the war. Then we look backward and what 
we find there is not always pleasant. Two things, 
however, we invariably find: First, that wherever 
labor was standing loyally by the government (and 


30 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

thank heaven it could be found from coast to coast 
and north to south), no credit is due the low-browed, 
bomb-throwing, torch-bearing, windjamming agita¬ 
tor. On the other hand, wherever you find labor 
astray during the war period and still more today, 
it is due to the influence of these same undesirable 
gentry. 

Union men of America, you are not only big and 
brave enough to throw off the tyranny of the Red 
Autocrats, but you are wise enough to break through 
the barriers and formulas of yesterday and swing 
out into freedom of a greater, more prosperous, 
democratic and industrial tomorrow. 

The ordinary American employer is at the present 
moment from five to ten years in advance of most 
labor agitators. No more auspicious occasion ever 
appeared than the present hour to Americanize and 
democratize industry. But it can never be accom¬ 
plished while men are organizing for strife, the pro¬ 
tection of inefficiency and the building of a non¬ 
sensical labor autocracy. 


CHAPTER V. 


The cause of industrial unrest we have attributed 
to un-American attitudes and policies by employers 
and employees. 

In our last chapter we dealt with the question of 
the loyalty of organized labor during the war. While 
this was in some respects a digression from the main 
line of discussion, it was necessary nevertheless, in 
order to answer the agitator who sought to justify 
present disloyal and disruptive activities by throw¬ 
ing into the teeth of his challengers the much vaunt¬ 
ed loyalty of labor during the period of national 
crisis. 

The question projected for answer in the last 
chapter “Why has union labor lent itself so readily 
to the leadership of radicalism?” remains to be an¬ 
swered in this and succeeding chapters. 

It must be remembered that we bring no charges 
of disloyalty against labor as a whole nor against 
the great leaders of the movement who have been 
tried and tested in the anxious days of crisis which 
came to us all during the war. If labor or its gen¬ 
erally esteemed leaders have been betrayed into un- 


32 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

patriotic stands, it is due largely to the usurpation 
of leadership by radicals, which in the main has been 
accomplished because the rank and file have lacked 
that good old-fashioned American back-bone which 
has made us great as a people. 

This book, however, proposes to deal with foun¬ 
dation principles, for it is there, and there only, that 
we shall find a satisfactory answer to our problems. 

To say that radicals on the one hand, and spine¬ 
less union men on the other, are to blame to a great 
extent for present conditions, is true. But this does 
not answer the fundamental question. Strong, pa¬ 
triotic, union leadership, backed by obedience on the 
part of the rank and file, has just saved the miners 
from a disaster which threatened to wreck their 
union. 

This same leadership and obedience may assure a 
fairer approximation to perfect functioning for the 
present—and still, the machine itself, may become 
again in the near future a serious menace to our 
peace and safety. Your automobile may break down 
on the road forty miles from home. Skill in patch work 
and operating may bring you in, and even carry 
you about your business and pleasure for a time, 
but you are in danger of walking, or worse, at any 
time, until the machine is thoroughly overhauled and 
properly fixed. 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 33 

So with any industrial organization either of labor 
or employer. If it is wrong and un-American at hot- 
tom it will take very strong leadership and loyalty 
to hold it even partially in line, and it will be ever 
ready to run amuck and lend itself to practices an¬ 
tagonistic to our institutions. 

Here is the case in a nutshell and without further 
parley or mincing of words: Labor organizations as 
represented by unions along craft lines are funda¬ 
mentally un-American. Let any man deny this who 
can. It is not a question of the stalwart patriotism 
of Samuel Gompers, John Lewis or any othetf leader 
or their followers. The question lies deeper than 
this. It is not a question of the improper and un¬ 
patriotic, unbrotherly attributes of employers which 
has brought into being an apparent necessity for or¬ 
ganized labor. We must go deeper than that. 

Will any sane man deny that from the very be¬ 
ginning of our history, yes, away back when our 
fathers were a little company of persecuted Chris¬ 
tians, we believed, practiced and preached co-op¬ 
eration? And has not adherence to this same whole¬ 
some principle made us what we are? And if we 
had clung to it tenaciously would we not be far and 
away beyond what we are today in all the arts and 
culture of civilization? 

But this machine—Organized Labor—does not 


34 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

stand for co-operation, all the leaders and members 
to the contrary notwithstanding. The employers’ 
machine will be treated and operated upon in due 
time. The patient on the table at present 
is Union Labor. Let us ? stay the knife until we can 
properly and successfully finish this delicate job. Let 
the reader consult any history on the Labor War in 
the United States. It is one which teems with a 
story of conflict after conflict. Untold billions! of 
dollars and thousands of human lives have been lost 
in Labor Wars within the confines of peaceful 
America. Why? Because union labor is an or¬ 
ganization for combat. We are not overlooking the 
necessity, real or imaginary, for its existence. Let us 
not be side-tracked from our argument. Labor is 
organized today, and was organized in the beginning, 
to protect the interests of workers against the real, 
and fancied, autocratic encroachments of employers. 
These organizations were started with a wrong idea 
and both sides are still at fault. We have lived long 
enough to learn that capital, labor and brains must 
be happy and agreeable partners. Otherwise wreck 
and ruin ensue. 

We readily admit that union labor has apparently 
gone wrong in recent years only. But this is merely 
in appearance. Certain practices and doctrines en¬ 
tirely un-American in origin and results have been 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 35 

adhered to by organized workers from the beginning. 
Take a well known I. W. W. doctrine for instance, 
“Sabotage.” John Spargo says that “during the 
whole period of modern industrialism there was 
never a time when discontented workers did not at¬ 
tempt to gain revenge for real, or fancied wrongs, by 
spoiling materials and tools, retarding production, 
etc. Nothing in these practices ever inspired men to 
construct elaborate theories about them, or to build 
policies upon them, until the strange Scotch collo¬ 
quialism “Ca Canny” fascinated a little group of 
French intellectuals, and to translate it they coined 
a new word, “Sabotage,” which in turn fascinated 
certain groups in this country. Commonplace trades, 
union policies and ideas were thus easily glorified by 
the mere substitution of French terms for English.” 

Note the doctrine and practice of Sabotage, which 
has been carried to such heights and depths of devil¬ 
ish perfection by Haywood and his crowd, is un- 
American in origin. It is older than the organiza¬ 
tion known as the I. W. W., and has been practiced, 
says Spargo, “during the whole period of modern 
industrialism” and is “A commonplace trade union 
policy.” 

Will anyone dare stand up and say that this; is 
American ? It is most emphatically un-American and 
destructive of prosperity for every element of our 


36 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

population. And because it is un-American it is 
wrong. Wrong because, as we go back to the be¬ 
ginning of American history, we find our forefathers 
laid down the foundations of this government on the 
immutable principle of right, and in so far as we 
have departed from that principle which runs 
through the moral constitution of the universe, we 
have suffered confusion and defeat. 

No matter by what method of sophistry men argue 
themselves into the belief that Sabotage is right and 
founded upon sound economic law, the fact remains 
that, just so long as the pillars of the universe stand 
just so long will right be right, and wrong be wrong. 
And the practice of wrong in any avenue of human 
action leads to ruination, individually and nation¬ 
ally. No man can read the pages of history written 
as they are with a pen dipped in human blood, punc¬ 
tuated bjr the flash of the saber and the screams of 
dying humanity, without being impressed with the 
fact that nations and dynasties have prospered or 
toppled into ruin in proportion as they have adhered 
to, or departed from, the principles of right and 
justice. And this holds in regard to organizations 
whether it be the Praetorian Guard or the American 
Federation of Labor. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Time and space forbid any detailed discussion of 
Sabotage. 

For the benefit of those who doubt the contention 
that the practice has been carried on from the very 
beginnings of Trade Unionism, we refer you to any 
unbiased history of the labor movement. 

We must carefully discriminate between the radi¬ 
calism manifested by various labor organizations in 
recent years which has voiced sentiments, and mani¬ 
fested tendencies, not only radical as to labor de¬ 
mands, but positively destructive to Democratic in¬ 
stitutions, and the other forms and tendencies in¬ 
herent in the labor movement from the beginning. 

The radicalism we call red-revolutionary, so much 
in evidence just now, has undoubtedly been caused 
by “boring from within.” 

The other aspect deals entirely with radical de¬ 
partures from co-operative principles (between em¬ 
ployer and employee) and has laid the foundations, 
and furnished the inspiration for the present ultra- 
radical movements, which have carried certain doc¬ 
trines to a considerable height of active perfection. 


38 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

Sabotage belongs to this category. It has not only 
been practiced by them from the beginning, but is 
now being adhered to by many so-called conservative 
union men. 

It can be observed in almost any shop in all its 
phases, from actual, wilful destruction of the em¬ 
ployer’s property, to slowing down on the job and 
curtailing production. Limiting production is de¬ 
structive to the employer’s interests as well as those 
of the workers, and comes, therefore, within the 
meaning of the word. 

Can the reader imagine a successful revolution 
founded upon a practice so utterly and hopelessly 
dishonest as Sabotage, to say nothing of the old ob¬ 
jection, which as yet remains unanswered—sabotage 
“destroys the worker’s pride in his work.” What 
of the worker’s integrity, his sense of honor and 
fair play, his faith in himself and his fellows? Can 
a state built upon such conditions permanently suc¬ 
ceed? It cannot. If it could come into being today 
it would be honeycombed with intrigue, conspiracy, 
distrust and discontent. Such is the answer of his¬ 
tory and common sense. There isn’t an agitator in 
the world with as many brains as God gave the 
geese—a teaspoonful to a thousand—but will admit 
in his secret heart that so-called class-solidarity 
could not be maintained under such conditions. 


39 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

Labor today, from the bottom to the top, is one 
seething mass of turmoil, suspicion, charges and 
counter-charges. The leaders are accused by the 
rank and file, times out of number, of dishonesty and 
selling out to employers; there is mutual distrust and 
charges of scabbing by union men upon union men. 

How could it be otherwise among men who will de¬ 
liberately destroy the property of others, or curtail 
and limit their own productive powers, thus violat¬ 
ing a simple agreement, which common honesty de¬ 
mands should be kept inviolate by the worker who 
sells his labor power for so much money per hour, 
day or month. Imagine a Government founded upon 
such hellish doctrines and controlled by people 
who believe in and practice them. 

The present order of society is far from perfection. 
But with all its imperfections it is a veritable para¬ 
dise compared to the proposed state erected upon the 
dishonesty of the proletariat. 

At present we know our principles are righteous 
and calculated to insure the greatest amount of pros¬ 
per^ to our people possible, measured only by their 
brains, industry, and the break of luck which no gov¬ 
ernment can effectually control. We seek to get back 
to them more and more, but the millennium, to which 
the bloody fingers of the revolutionist point, is one 


40 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

of black foreboding, one in which the red demon 
sits on the throne of confusion. Virtue, confidence, 
justice, freedom and ambition are the bleeding and 
enchained captives of lust, distrust, dishonesty, ty¬ 
ranny and sloth. A millennium vomited out of hell, 
from which order has fled pursued by disorder, in 
whose gory hands are the torch and the bomb. A 
millennium from which the song of birds, the happy 
prattle of little children, the laughter of youth, the 
beauty and strength of mid life, the serenity and 
content of old age and the music and harmony of 
affable relationship are gone. A millennium from 
which the scream of hungry childhood, anguished 
and outraged womanhood, broken and prostrate man¬ 
hood, shall ascend to the fire-swept heavens. While 
ruling all is the scepter of universal despair, and 
over all shall wave, in the hot blasts of hell, the red 
flags of anarchy. While the disharmony of red tri¬ 
umph shall be played by demons, damned and cast 
out, on flutes of flame and the tom toms of per¬ 
dition. 

For this we are asked to discharge the free gov¬ 
ernments of the earth, to exchange our order of so¬ 
ciety founded at least upon righteous principles. We 
are asked to exchange America, “The land of the 
free and the home of the brave,” the land of laugh¬ 
ter, song, sunshine and promise, to exchange our 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 41 

starry banner with all its symbols, Humanity, Lib¬ 
erty and Equality. Shall we do it? Not as long 
as God reigns upon the throne of the Universe, and 
the sun marches in triumph across the blue dome of 
the sky, and the stars beam in the vaulted azure. 
As long as time endures—never. Come back, ye peo¬ 
ple of Columbia! Come back to the bed rock your 
fathers laid—of patriotic manhood. Swear once 
more undying allegiance to right and justice. Draw 
the flashing sabre of honest dealing and face your 
enemies in grim array. Victory is yours for the trial 
and the world will join in the jubilee. 

What has been said of Sabotage, a weapon of syn¬ 
dicalism, in relation to Trade Unionism, can be as 
truthfully said with regard to the whole philosophy 
of Eugene Sorrell. “A new development of an old 
movement, ” says a great Labor Leader. The word 
“syndicalism” is in ordinary usage, the French 
equivalent of the English term “Trade Unionism.” 
The word is not used, however, as a synonym for 
labor unionism as we know it. And yet the philos¬ 
ophy of syndicalism and Trade Unionism are so sim¬ 
ilar in certain phases, that one cannot escape the 
notion that Trade Unionism furnished at least, a be¬ 
ginning for the modern movement. 

For instance, there is one note which vibrates 
throughout the propaganda of the extremists. It 


42 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


declares itself to be concerned only with the inter¬ 
ests of the proletariat. The wage-working classes. 
That the present order of society is ruled by the 
capitalistic class, and the workers are wage slaves 
upon whose back the exploiting class rides to riches, 
luxury and control. They state that there is a fun¬ 
damental conflict between these classes which can¬ 
not be settled by compromise. One class or the 
other must be destroyed. Such statements as these 
open the way for any kind of lawlessness, and the 
insane and terrible doctrine that, any means to over¬ 
throw the capitalists is justified. Now, because law 
protects property rights, as well as principles of 
freedom, law must be destroyed. Thus Wm. D. Hay¬ 
wood in the “New York Call and Yolkzeitung;” “I 
despise the law.” “No true Socialist can be a law- 
abiding citizen.” “When the worker comes to know 
the truth he will use any weapon to win his fight, 
therefore he does not hesitate to break the laws.” 
“Under Socialism the Government will be an in¬ 
dustrial Government, a shop Government. 

It is obvious that this statement indicates the 
meaning of the movement and philosophy in full 
bloom. No man could imagine any of our great con¬ 
servative labor leaders making a cold-blooded state¬ 
ment like Haywood’s. Certainly not. And yet, 
what masterful leadership and unbending patriotism 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


43 


it lias taken on the part of conservative leaders, to 
hold their followers from doing the very things out¬ 
lined by Haywood. 

However, candor requires that we admit that the 
machine has gotten beyond control many times, and 
has even forced great leaders, about whose patriotism 
there can be no question, into utterances and actions 
which, to say the least, are open to very serious 
question. 

But does organized labor, as represented by the 
American Federation of Labor, believe there are two 
antagonistic classes in America? 

We shall see. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Industrial peace can never be permanently enjoyed 
while employers and employes believe they are mem¬ 
bers of separate classes, distinct and apart as to in¬ 
terest, possibilities and achievement. Even super¬ 
ficial students of industrial affairs must have recog¬ 
nized by this time that, the most fruitful cause of^ 
unrest is the constant insistence on class distinctions 
which is being carried on by extremists. When an 
artificial class-consciousness is built up and com¬ 
mits itself to the undemocratic assumption that the 
classes thus erected are antagonistic, trouble as in¬ 
evitably follows as darkness follows daylight. 

Are the Socialists, Bolshevists and I. W. W. alone 
responsible for the existence of the class war with 
its consequent hatreds and strife? They are not. 

“Either by specific declaration or by implication, 
Union Labor accepts as a fact the division of mod¬ 
ern industrial society into classes with antagonistic 
interests. Its existence is the result of a conviction 
that the employers as a class do not and cannot have 
the same interests as the wage-earners, and that the 
wage-earners must combine, in order that, by their 


45 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

eollective power they may wrest from the employers 
higher wages, shorter hours and improved conditions 
of labor. This philosophy is shared by the most 
conservative as well as by the most radical labor 
unionists. Apart from it labor unionism could have 
no raison d’etre. 

“Either by specific declaration or by implication, 
too, all unions, whether radical or conservative, ac¬ 
cept the view that the laborer is exploited; that the 
sum of rent, interest and profit is produced by the 
addition to natural resources of human labor (using 
that term as all the great economists do to include all 
forms of productive effort) and should belong to the 
laborer. The enjoyment of this sum by others is 
the result of a parasitic extortion which ought to be 
eliminated. 

* ‘ Some of the unions make radical declarations of 
these principles in their membership pledges and 
constitutions. They declare that there is a funda¬ 
mental conflict between the capitalists and the work¬ 
ers which can only end when the system of exploita¬ 
tion through the medium of wages is destroyed. 
Other unions may refuse to adopt such declarations 
of faith and even repudiate them, avowing their de¬ 
sire to be only “a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s 
work, ’ ’ and for harmonious relations with their em¬ 
ployers. But in actual practice this theoretical mod- 


46 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

eration is of little or no consequence. Ask any or¬ 
ganizer belonging to such a union to justify the ex¬ 
istence of his union, and he will at once begin to 
argue that the worker needs to protect himself 
against encroachments on his liberty or standard of 
living by the employer. Ask him why such a danger 
exists if the employers’ interests are not contrary to 
the interests of the workers, in their special relations 
as employers and employees, and he will at once sur¬ 
render his union’s declared faith and fall back upon 
its real faith, which is rooted in the stern realities of 
class conflict. 

“Ask such an organizer to define what is meant by 
‘a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,’ to state 
the principle or principles by which it is to be de¬ 
termined, and he will be forced to admit that the 
phrase is really meaningless. What he really be¬ 
lieves is that, the workers get as much as they can 
compel the employers to pay, and that they ought to 
struggle to make the employers pay more and more 
for less and less work, until the logical end is at¬ 
tained and nothing is taken from labor as rent, in¬ 
terest and profit.”—John Spargo on “Syndicalism, 
Industrial Unionism and Socialism,” chapter 1, page 
4. 

The whole labor union movement is founded then 
upon the belief that there are at least two great in- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 47 

dustrial classes, antagonistic to each other. Examine 
the journals of labor. Is the doctrine of co-operation 
ever preached? Do not the writers and leaders 
plainly indicate by positive assertion, and by any 
other means necessary, their belief that employers 
are bent on the exploitation of labor? 

Are not the weapons of the Reds the weapons of 
organized labor—not the bomb, the torch and open 
threat against Government perhaps (and yet violence 
is nothing new in labor warfare), but sabotage, boy¬ 
cott and the strike ? If the Socialists and I. W. W. ’s 
have found certain principles and weapons at hand 
and they have developed and carried them farther 
than patriotic union men care to follow, is organized 
labor going to succeed in “passing the buck” en¬ 
tirely to the radicals, incendiaries and revolutionists? 
If this indictment of organized labor is true—and 
who can successfully deny it?—is not the existence of 
such a machine, whatever may be the justification 
for its presence, a serious menace to the industrial 
peace and economic progress of the country? 

Maintain the necessity of such protection for labor 
if you will. As for this writer, he takes the stand on 
the American principles of co-operation and justice, 
and from that unshakable rock he charges that, not 
only labor and capital, but politicians, statesmen, 
churches and societies are manifesting the most dis- 


48 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

gusting, saddening and unrighteous, cat-hauling, 
panhandling, bickering, bulldozing, double-crossing, 
fighting, known in our history. What a sight for 
men and devils! A nation created and carried by 
unity of purpose and action to undreamed of heights 
of prosperity and suceess, now a mass of industrial, 
political, religious, social and sectional intrigue, an¬ 
tagonism and confusion. “Whom the Gods would 
destroy they first make mad. ’ ’ 

Are we such fools that we cannot solve our prob¬ 
lems by the application of American principles, or 
must we have the statesmen of Europe, poor, sick 
Europe, direct our ship of state, while Lenine and 
Trotsky settle our labor trouble? Verily, we have 
the sense, and the fundamental national character¬ 
istics of fair play, unity and justice which, if faith¬ 
fully applied, will make us trail-blazers for the world 
to the place of social and economic peace. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The class war, sabotage, the strike and boycott are 
the ideas and weapons of syndicalism, in perfection 
of development and use, only. We have proved that 
the doctrine of separate class interests is at the very 
foundation of organized labor’s existence. We have 
cited historical evidence proving that sabotage (de¬ 
stroying employers’ property and working against 
his interests) have been practiced from the very be¬ 
ginning of modern industrialism. The general strike, 
boycott, closed shop, peaceful picketing, etc., re¬ 
main for consideration. 

Haywood, the most outspoken champion of the 
general strike in the United States, says there are 
“three distinct phases of the general strike: 

, “A general strike in an industry; 

“A general strike in a community; 

“A general national strike.” 

“The General Strike,” Wm. D. Haywood, page 12. 

A quotation from Vincent St. John may be illum¬ 
inating in this connection: “The question of right 
and wrong does not concern us,” said he, “the prin¬ 
cipal weapon is the strike, and when that fails to 


50 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

force concessions from the employers, work is re¬ 
sumed and sabotage is used to force the employers 
to concede the demands of the workers/* 

The strike is likewise the chief weapon of or¬ 
ganized labor. The majority of strikes called in this 
country have not been called by the wobblies. We 
are not saying that all strikes were without justifi¬ 
cation. We are saying, however, that the strike is 
one of the weapons of direct action. Now, the I. W. 
W. and conservative union labor will start in at a 
given point and fight each other all down the line, 
and then eventually arrive at the same place. “It 
is quite an interesting study,” says a clever writer, 
“to observe how the most reactionary of old-fash¬ 
ioned labor unionists and syndicalists arrive at the 
same practical results. Believing in the sufficiency 
of trade unionism, relying completely upon the 
strike and the boycott, the old-fashioned unionist de¬ 
nies the need for political action. He points to the 
fact that certain trades enjoy the eight hour work 
day, for example, won by the union and not brought 
about by legislation. The Syndicalist takes the 
same attitude and defends it with the same argu¬ 
ment. Thus extremes meet.” 

As long as the memory of the general strikes in 
Winnipeg and Seattle and the general coal and steel 
strikes endure, it will never be possible to say truth- 


51 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

fully that organized labor and the I. W. W. do not 
argue as to the efficiency of the strike. Some wip 
object that these unions were under radical leader¬ 
ship, but it is quite noticeable that the men who had 
most to do with these strikes are, so far as we 
know, still in good standing in their unions and the 
American Federation of Labor. 

It is not for us to tire the reader with dry sta¬ 
tistics and historical detail. We wish, however, to 
give one citation from history, on the general strike 
which is far enough back to escape the charge of 
modern Red influence. 

The first great agitation for the general strike 
in the United States broke out in the Federation 
of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of this coun¬ 
try and Canada—now known as the American Fed¬ 
eration of Labor. This organization was formed in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1881. In October, 1884, 
at the fourth annual convention of the Federation, 
it was decided to inaugurate a propaganda in favor 
of an eight-hour working day. A manifesto was is¬ 
sued calling upon all the unions to demand the 
eight-hour day and setting a day for calling a na¬ 
tion-wide strike in all industries to gain that end. 
The day first chosen was May 1st, 1885, but later 
it was decided to postpone the great event to the 
following year. The Anarchists took charge of the 


52 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

agitation to carry on their propaganda and on May 
5th, 1886, the Haymarket riots took place. It has 
been well said that “Rudolph Schnaubelts’ bomb— 
if it was indeed his—was perhaps the worst blow 
which the working class movement of America had 
sustained up to that time.” 

Here we have then as fair an illustration of our 
contention as can be found. Conservative labor 
agitated the general strike, with no thought of di¬ 
rect action in the sense of violence and bomb, but 
the anarchists found things ready to hand and they 
carried the matter to its inevitable conclusion. Do 
union men deplore violent methods to secure their 
ends? To be sure. We have repeatedly maintained 
our belief in the patriotism of the great majority of 
America’s toilers. We believe that many of them 
are far more patriotic than some of Americans em¬ 
ployers. But the personal attitude of Union men 
and the intemperate ideas and practices that their 
philosophy and machine leads them into, are two 
different things. Firearms are dangerous in the 
hands of the most careful men. The weapons of 
class war are equally as dangerous in the hands of 
the most conservative union men. The use of such 
weapons in the hands of the most careful is more 
than liable to end in the most disastrous fashion. 

The boycott, the closed shop, peaceful picketing, 


53 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

etc., have been carried to such extremes that any 
recital of detail would be unnecessarily harrowing 
and disgusting. We pass them by with as few words 
as possible. 

The closed shop is positively and absolutely, and 
forever un-American, un-Canadian, and un-every- 
thing else which means freedom. It is one of the 
most effective weapons the radicals have ever found 
for enforcing their demands. It is a most flagrant 
violation of the rights of the employer and the em¬ 
ployee. It destroys liberty, paralyzes ambition and 
stultifies production. It lays bare the breast of the 
general public to the most fatal thrusts from every 
weapon in the Red arsenal. It is as much a curse 
to the labor leader and the union man as to the 
public. More later. 

Peaceful picketing, “there ain’t no such animal,” 
said a worker in our hearing, recently. He was 
right. How could there be unless by chance every 
free man died over night. Think you that an or¬ 
ganization representing a small minority of Ameri¬ 
can working men, an organization which refuses re¬ 
sponsibility under the law, an organization built 
upon the backs of American toilers and led by men 
in horn-rimmed glasses, with fat salaries, comforta¬ 
bly ensconced in their magnificent seven-story office 
building in Washington, D. C., is going to control 


54 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

the means of livelihood of free-born citizens? Think 
you, that free men of any land are going to permit 
representatives of organized labor to patrol with 
threatening mien before the bread, clothes and fuel 
of themselves and dependents and be told in the 
harsh growl of the labor picket, “ Strike on here, 
stay away, enter at your peril.” By the gods no. 
It must be stopped. Such methods do not make for 
peace. We are farther now from a solution of our 
troubles, after years of their use, than when we first 
began. 

We haven’t wilfully wounded the feelings of the 
reader. We know there are many who believe that 
organized labor is their only protection. Such con¬ 
tentions, however, are apart from the argument for 
the moment. We believe that the doctrines, tenden¬ 
cies and practices under discussion are absolutely 
destructive of co-operative principles and of peace. 
If we cannot find a better way out than the one 
used thus far, then more power to organized labor. 
Our interests are with the man who toils with his 
hands, but for all of that we consider them identical 
with the interests of the employer who toils with his 
brains and money. 

We believe there is a better way out and that is 
the American way. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Peace in industry, and economic and social de¬ 
velopment along normal lines, are impossible while 
a sullen state of antagonism (breaking out at fre¬ 
quent intervals in strikes, lockouts and worse) 
continues to exist between employee and employer. 

We have discussed the cause of unrest from the 
wage workers’ standpoint. In this chapter we are 
going to ask what contribution employers have 
made to the present unfortunate condition. 

Any man professing to apply American principles 
to the present situation who has nothing but criti¬ 
cism for wage earners, and praise and commenda¬ 
tion for the employers is either a fool or a hypo¬ 
crite. He is either ignorant of facts, or he seeks 
to curry favor with employers at the expense of the 
workers. Such an one merits nothing but con¬ 
tempt from all parties concerned. For, unless 
Democracy is a failure, there is a principle at stake 
in this controversy which must not be sacrificed, 
and which demands honest consideration and rigid 
application by, and to, all parties involved. 

No matter what the present attitude of some em- 


56 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ployers may be, we charge them with having made 
in the past (and some are still guilty) their share 
of contribution to the present strife and turmoil 
in industry. Let us not attempt to dodge the is¬ 
sue. The subject must be faced squarely and set¬ 
tled on the American principle of the square deal, 
or be met in the future with no chance at settle¬ 
ment. Opportunity must be taken by the forelock, 
or disaster awaits us. 

Some employers have departed from the great 
principles of justice, humanity and liberty upon 
which this Republic is founded. 

First, they have been autocratic in their attitude 
toward employees, no fair-minded man will deny 
this. Certain industrial leaders have been more 
severely autocratic than others, some have had no 
autocratic intentions, but their representatives and 
their machine have been repressive and severe, 
while others are undoubtedly innocent. We are 
not dealing just now, however, with lily-fingered 
innocence. 

This writer is a poor man. He lives in a humble 
little house. He knows what it means to tremble 
on the brink of complete failure. He has experi¬ 
enced the joys and the trials of working with his 
hands for a living, and for an opportunity to make 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 57 

good. He has ambition, not for wealth or fame, but 
to contribute something for the good of his kind. 

He is glad to acknowledge that his experience 
with employers has been pleasant. He thankfully 
admits that the firm upon whose list he now has 
the honor to stand as an employee—furloughed to 
carr}^ on the work circumstances have thrust upon 
him—saved him from dismal defeat. But the con¬ 
sciousness of his humble position in life, nor his re¬ 
gard for the good, fair employers he knows are 
not going to prevent him telling the truth as he 
sees it. For humble position, nor fair treatment 
have not caused him to forget the history of 
Labor’s struggle, nor paralyzed his faculties of 
observation. 

Autocratic methods and attitudes have been used 
and assumed by certain types of employers. There 
is no country under the Jieavens in which industrial 
autocracy is more inexcusable than in America. A 
people enjoying political freedom are not going to 
take kindly to anything in their economic life 
which smacks of repression or tyranny. 

The world is considerably troubled at present 
with a certain type of worker who has no respect 
for superiors and who despises authority. There 
ean be no well-ordered condition of society where 
the whims and fallacies of such people generally ob- 


58 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

tain. On the other hand, there are employers who 
have no respect and consideration for the brother 
of low degree. They are puffed up. Their vain 
imaginations have set them high above the “com¬ 
mon herd.” They forget that the red blood of 
humanity flows in the veins of the man of toil. 
They overlook the fact that the wage worker ob¬ 
serves, thinks, suffers, weeps and laughs, and that 
he does other numberless things common to all. 
Such employers do not seem to recognize that we 
common folk have ambition, enjoy success, dread 
failure, that we love and hate, in a word that we 
are human beings. We are not beasts of burden, 
nor mere cogs in a machine. We have legitimate 
and worthy aspirations. We know who we are, 
and where we belong. We are members of “The 
Brotherhood of American Free-Men.” The blood 
of our fathers paid for our life membership. Now, 
because money didn’t buy our position, money is 
not going to take it away. We respect superior 
brains. We admire and honor achievement. We 
know the salutary effects of discipline. We ac¬ 
knowledge our superiors. But we are not slaves. 
Notice is hereby served on the lying agitators who 
call us “slaves,” and the industrial autocrat who 
believes we are slaves, that there flows in our 
veins the blue blood of aristocracy, the aristocracy 


59 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

of free-men: The choicest society of earth. Our 
pockets may be empty, our brains few and our 
social position low, but we are free! Free! Stand 
aside, ye autocrats in labor and capital, we want 
a chance to play the game. We are perfectly able 
to understand and shape our course without the 
guidance of the walking delegate or the czar in 
the boss’s chair. The rich man in this country— 
employer or otherwise—has no station in life to 
which the poorest of our citizens may not aspire. 
In fact, the great industrial captains with hardly 
an exception, worked in their various lines from the 
lowest rung on the ladder to the place they hold 
today. 

Any man favored with conspicuous talent, blessed 
with good “luck,” possessed of means, and enjoy¬ 
ing high social position, must never imagine him¬ 
self a member of the upper caste. There is no such 
institution in this free nation. The rich man of 
today is oftimes the poor man of tomorrow. The 
employer of yesterday is the wage worker of today. 
We have seen in our brief day a bank president, a 
machinist’s helper. A longshoreman in the presi¬ 
dent’s chair of a great shipping corporation. An 
ex-convict the manager of a mighty business. And 
not long since a poor man suddenly realized on an 
investment he had scraped money together to pay 


60 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

for on the installment plan. And we are well ac¬ 
quainted with an old-fashioned French lumberjack 
who is now a captain of the lumber industry. 

Today you are a member of “The havegots,” 
tomorrow you belong to the “havenots.” You are 
a fool to be envious of the man who succeeds. You 
may, by application and thrift succeed tomorrow. 
On the other hand, a successful man, now an em¬ 
ployer is a bigger fool to despise and set at naught 
his brother of more humble attainment. And of 
all the fools, the emptiest-headed fool is the “guy” 
who inherited all he owns from his forebears, and 
who looks upon the poor and struggling with con¬ 
tempt. 

Thus read a few thoughts on fundamental Amer¬ 
icanism which will give courage to the struggling, 
and take the strut and blow out of the one who has 
achieved. 

Would it surprise the reader to be informed that 
there is a growing number of employers who have 
as little patience with industrial autocrats who 
would grind the face of toil, as they do with the 
labor autocrats who seek to run and ruin industry. 


CHAPTER X. 


Employers have not only been autocratic in the 
past but they have also been guilty of the exploita¬ 
tion of labor. 

. The revolutionary charge that America is gov¬ 
erned by a capitalistic group with a powerful lobby 
at Washington, could be applied, with at least as 
much show of truth, to the labor group which sup¬ 
ports a handsome seven-story office building and 
carries on one of the most powerful lobbies at the 
National Capital. Both of these groups have had 
great influence in shaping legislation. Take the 
Adamson Law, for instance: this was one of the 
greatest pieces of class legislation in the history of 
the American Congress. There are, in addition to 
the capitalistic and labor groups, other well or¬ 
ganized and active lobbies at Washington. Outside 
of these, however, is the great unorganized mass of 
our citizens. These are the ones upon whose 
shoulders rest the final responsibilities of govern¬ 
ment. They number, at a minimum calculation, be¬ 
tween sixty and seventy million people. They are 
not all voters, but their expressed opinion and vot- 


62 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


ing strength is going to determine, more and more, 
the character of legislation enacted. They are be¬ 
coming “Class Conscious” ,so to speak. They are 
realizing that Democracy means majority rule. They 
propose from now on to settle with Congress who 
gives vote and influence to group legislation. The 
charge then, of class rule in this country, means 
nothing more than our citizens are neglecting their 
duty. If the idea of class domination is. accepted, 
we would like to know which class it is, labor or 
capital? There is much evidence to support the 
growing opinion that organized labor is trying to 
run the entire country in the interest of a special 
group. Rest assured this attempt is doomed to fail¬ 
ure in the same way, and for the same reason, that 
similar attempts by other groups have failed. 

But what about the exploitation of the wage 
worker by individual and organized employer? It 
has been done. Employers have been guilty of 
grinding the brow of toil. They have tried in the 
past to get all they could out of the wage worker 
and give as little as possible in return. Such men 
have made labor organization necessary for the 
protection of workers. The result, as we have 
pointed out before, is that two important elements 
of our population are arrayed against each other in 
combative organizations. There can be no lasting 


63 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

industrial peace under such conditions. These or¬ 
ganizations must cease to exist or apply themselves 
to projecting and accomplishing a scheme of co¬ 
operation founded upon liberty, understanding and 
honorable agreement. With the present attitude 
of Labor, which seems bent on going as far in the 
exploitation and domination of both capital and the 
worker, as ever the most autocratic employer has 
gone in the past, we have but little to expect in 
the direction of co-operation from such mutually 
destructive forces. 

From the employers’ side there is now a very 
marked willingness on the part of most of them to 
meet labor more than half way. As for those who 
still fondly dream of ‘‘the good old days” (?) they 
must be reminded that general contentment and 
satisfactory prosperity cannot obtain while one side 
is trying to rob the other. Denying the worker a 
just recompense for toil honestly delivered is rob¬ 
bery of the most devilish sort. Such injustice 
merits, and finally receives, the condemnation of all 
fair-minded men. 

Does the reader believe there is a Supreme Being? 
Undoubtedly when he is alone and thinks the mat¬ 
ter over seriously he admits, what multitudes of 
others have, that God is the final demand of con¬ 
sistent reasoning. Mankind distinctively looks for 


64 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

the final dispensation of perfect justice from a 
higher source than himself. The history of the 
race is full of incidents which loudly proclaim that 
man is right in this belief, with its comfort or 
fear, depending upon the quality of his actions. 

The Bible tells us about Jehovah, and his laws. 
Whether the book is inspired or not, is a question 
of no special interest for the moment. Inspiration 
is not necessary to truth. From another view point 
we might say “All Truth Is Inspired /’ This 
writer, however, subscribes his unworthy name to 
the creeds of Christendom, so far as the inspira¬ 
tion of the Scriptures is concerned. Let us not 
forget that the more we get back to old fashioned 
Americanism the closer we come to the Bible. A 
very slight acquaintance with the beginning of 
American history will reveal to anyone that Amer¬ 
icanism was born of Scriptural inspiration. 

There are many passages in the Old Book which 
deal with the relationships of rich and poor, em¬ 
ployer and employee, government and citizenship. 
One of the most unusual of these passages is found 
in James 5:1-4. We pass this pasage on to the 
reader because we know of no book on Economics, 
Sociology or Humanitarianism which equals it for 
fullness of expression and pungent warning. We 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 65 

attempt no interpretation of the passage, we leave 
that to the Master Expositor—Conscience. 

1. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for 
your miseries that shall come upon you. 

2. “Your riches are corrupted and your gar¬ 
ments are moth eaten. 

3. “Your gold and silver is cankered; and the 
rust of them shall be a witness against you, and 
shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped 
treasure together for the last days. 

4. “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have 
reaped down your fields, which is kept back by 
fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have 
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of 
Sabaoth.” 

This is fine reading. It will undoubtedly be 
taken seriously by good Americans. 


CHAPTER XI. 


If industrial unrest is due to departure from, or 
positive failure to comply with, American principles 
in industry, we are pressed to ask why these de¬ 
partures and failures, on the part of both employer 
and employee, have occurred. Undoubtedly there 
are many contributary causes, but we are going to 
examine two or three which we consider the most 
important. 

The reader’s attention has been repeatedly 
directed to the thought that organizations of work¬ 
ers and bosses must be co-operative, instead of com¬ 
bative. At the present time they are not co-op¬ 
erative because they are formed and directed to 
protect interests, supposedly separate, but, accord¬ 
ing to all dictates of common sense and necessity, 
interests which are identical. The more one studies 
the deep underlying necessity for hearty and friend¬ 
ly co-operation between employer and employee, in 
furthering and establishing industry, the more 
amazed one becomes at the strange blindness which 
has affected the parties concerned and caused them 
to strike at each other, when they should be clasp- 


67 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ing hands in good fellowship and brotherly regard. 
Employers have used autocratic methods in dealing 
with labor, to a sufficient extent; and labor has 
used the weapons of direct action—strike and boy¬ 
cott—long enough to convince the public that both 
parties are un-American in their attitudes and are 
using weapons uneconomic, and therefore unable 
to bring permanent peace and satisfaction. A suc¬ 
cessful strike leaves employers with an ugly feeling. 
A defeated strike leaves the workers with resent¬ 
ment in their hearts and a determination to play 
even. This feeling is manifested from the work¬ 
ers' side by underproduction, and in various other 
ways. We shall have more to say of the futility of 
the strike in a later chapter. 

What has brought us to this pass? 

First and foremost, downright human selfishness 
listened for years to the rantings and ravings of 
those who would deify human nature, who strive to 
make us believe that humanity is an offspring of the 
gods. That our tempers and dispositions are 
positively angelic. All history testifies, however, to 
the fact that while there is much of nobility and 
beauty of spirit in the race—there is, at the same 
time, a deep trait of depraved selfishness in us 
all. The spirit of selfishness, covetousness and 
money lust has been the one great cause of all our 


68 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

troubles. There are exciting causes but the pre¬ 
disposition to depraved self-interest and heedless 
avarice has poisoned the whole human family. Let 
the reader, whatever his station in life, apply this 
thought to himself, and then to the general situation, 
and see if the contention is not true. The thought 
needs no amplification. It is very generally accept¬ 
ed by real thinkers. The remedy is unselfishness. 
A humanitarian consideration for the interests of 
others. 

Second: Modern industrial methods and ma¬ 
chinery have furnished a very effective, exciting 
cause for unrest. Many an employer now realizes 
that modern methods have robber industrial rela¬ 
tions of the human touch. When industry was small 
and the employer was in close personal touch with 
his workers, trouble was of less frequent occurrence 
and very easily settled. But, as industry developed 
and employers were forced to depend more and 
more upon subordinates for representation, the gulf 
between employer and employee widened. Many 
fair employers have been most woefully misrepre¬ 
sented by haughty, tyrannizing, inhuman super¬ 
intendents and foremen. 

In addition “As industry has become increasingly 
specialized, the workmen of today, instead of fol¬ 
lowing the product through from start to finish, 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 69 

and being stimulated by the feeling that he is the 
sole creator of a useful article, as was more or less 
the case in early days, now devotes his energies, for 
the most part, to countless repetitions of a single 
act or process, which is but one of perhaps a hun¬ 
dred operations necessary to transform the raw ma¬ 
terial into the finished product. 

“The worker loses sight of the significance of the 
part he plays in industry and feels himself to be 
merely one of the many cogs in a wheel. All the 
more, therefore, is it necessary that he should have 
contact with men engaged in other processes, and 
fulfilling other functions in industry, that he may 
still realize he is a part, and a necessary, though 
it may be an inconspicuous part, of a great enter¬ 
prise. 

“In modern warfare those who man the large guns 
find the range, not by training the guns on the 
object which they are seeking to reach, but in 
obedience to a mechanical formulae, which is 
worked out for them. Stationed behind the hill or 
mound, they seldom see the object at which their 
deadly fire is directed. One can readily imagine 
the sense of detachment and ineffectiveness which 
must come over these men. 

“But when the airplane, circling overhead, gets 
into communication with the gunner beneath and 


70 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

describes the thing to be accomplished, and the 
effectiveness of the shot, a new meaning comes into 
his life. In a second, he has become a part of the 
great struggle. He knows that his efforts are 
counting, that he is helping to bring success to his 
comrades. There comes to him a new enthusiasm 
and interest in his work. 

“The sense of isolation and detachment from the 
accomplishments of industry, which too often comes 
to the workers of today, can be overcome only by 
contact with the other contributing parties. Where 
such contact is not possible directly, it must be 
brought about indirectly through representation. 
In this way only can common purpose be kept alive, 
individual interest safe-guarded and the general 
welfare promoted.—From “Representation in In- 
dustry,” by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 

Such conditions do not actually destroy the possi¬ 
bility of advancement for the worker. But they 
have, nevertheless, a deadening effect on his initia¬ 
tive and ambition. There never was a time in his¬ 
tory when great leaders of industrial enterprise 
were looking more earnestly for capable, ambitious 
men for top positions, than today. And American 
workers need just now, more than any other one 
thing, that old fashioned American iron in their 
blood which will give them courage to take the 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


71 


bull—of any kind of a job—by the horns, and fight 
their way up to better things. At the same time, in 
noticing exciting causes, we must recognize that 
modern methods in industry, necessary though they 
may be, have a tendency to crush the free expres¬ 
sion of individual initiative and opinion. This con¬ 
dition is un-American. From the political stand¬ 
point, no matter how humble the station of the 
citizen in life, it is not only his privilege, but his 
duty to express himself. The same condition must 
obtain in industry if we would have peace. For 
let it ever be remembered that if employers cannot 
find a way to open avenues of expression for the 
humblest workers, then others will do it and such 
leadership may not be to the best interest of either 
side. 

Third: We have a vast, unassimilated army of 
foreign workers. From these ranks spring most of 
our professional trouble makers, and ultra-radical 
leaders. We are not overlooking the fact that we 
have native born disturbers in our midst. They 
are paid to look after the interests (?) of the toil¬ 
ers, and the very psychology of their position de¬ 
mands an occasional strike to give full proof of 
their interest and activity. But the strange phrases, 
ideas, doctrines and practices, which we call ultra¬ 
radical, are in the main foreign in origin and spirit. 


72 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

Our shameful neglect in the matter of Americaniz¬ 
ing our foreign-born population, is just beginning 
to dawn upon us, and thank Heaven, to arouse us. 

We have come to a pretty pass in America when 
a native born ex-service man returns to his own 
country and city, seeks employment and is told 
by some walking delegate, with a foreign twist on 
his tongue, and an alien glint in his eye, what this 
hero can and cannot do, in the matter of securing 
a job, and how much toll he will have to pay to this 
foreign high-binder for a chance to earn his daily 
bread. When we think of such conditions we would 
like to write just what we feel, but it would not 
be wise. We have only this to say—Americans 
cannot tolerate these conditions much longer. If 
we had our way, the employers and the labor auto¬ 
crats, who have created such situations, would be 
consigned to climes warmer than the north tem¬ 
perate zone. 


CHAPTER XII. 


The discussion of the cause of unrest has been 
concentrated on the relationship of employer and 
employee. There is another phase of the question, 
however, outside this relationship, which demands 
attention in this, our final chapter on “The Cause.” 

The High Cost of Living. Undoubtedly the high 
cost of living is the apparent cause of much uneasi¬ 
ness in industrial relationship. It is a great mis¬ 
take, however, to regard it as only a cause. The 
high cost of living is as much a result of industrial 
unrest as it is a cause. It is not very logical, per¬ 
haps, to consider a thing as cause and effect at one 
and the same time. On the other hand, there are 
certain reflex results of movements and conditions 
which plainly cause certain effects; and just as 
plainly again, these effects become causes. This 
continual process kept up, ever widens into a vicious 
circle of confusion. 

As a youngster you have called into the ear of 
the surrounding woodland to hear the answering 
echo. As your call was echoed back, the echo, in 
turn, became the cause of another echo. Upon a 


74 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

louder call, you had a perfect medley of echoes. 
You were the first cause, but, as the echoes in¬ 
creased, you had a whole series of causes and 
effects in operation. The unpleasant point in the 
application of this illustration to the question under 
discussion is: Who is the first cause of The High 
Cost of Living?- The economic law of supply and 
demand has, like the devil, been made to answer 
for many things. It is to be feared, however, that 
its normal operations are frequently accentuated 
or retarded by artificial manipulation. 

Who or what is the first cause of high living 
costs? The wage earner with his demands for high¬ 
er pay, shorter hours, and restricted production, 
with its consequent shortening of supply, in the 
face of increased demand; or the profiteers who 
corner markets, speculate in the necessities of life— 
and, in various other ways manipulate things for 
their own selfish ends? 

Both are to blame. But of the two, the most 
contemptible party to the dastardly business, is the 
profiteer. Many loyal working men are honestly 
perplexed. They secure a raise in pay, only to have 
living costs boosted higher than their raise war¬ 
rants. They cannot understand it. Finally the 
radical comes along and explains to them: “Your 
form of government is at fault. You need I. W. 


75 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

W.ism or Sovietism in this country. Your employer 
is a greasy necked exploiter. You need to over¬ 
throw the capitalistic class, etc.” 

These agitators are either such fools or hypo¬ 
crites that they do not know, or they will not ad¬ 
mit, that employers are frequently as much con¬ 
fused and suffer as severely under the strain of 
high prices as the wage earner. But the sleek, 
tricky, snaky profiteer is perfectly aware of the 
game he is playing. He knows the Whys and 
Wherefores of every movement. He parades his 
patriotism and at the same time exploits his fellow 
countrymen. Of all the despicable traitors which 
crawl on the face of the earth, it is those who use 
their brains and money to filch from the pockets of 
the people exorbitant and extortionate prices for 
the things of life. These Shylocks will have their 
pound of flesh. It matters not if the body politic, 
social and economic, is left trembling, bleeding and 
on the verge of death by their process. It is a cry¬ 
ing shame that America cannot be rid of them by 
the same process and in the same fashion as we 
rid ourselves of Comrade Emma and her pal, 
Berkman. 

To leave our discussion here, however, is very un¬ 
sound reasoning. It shows either a blindness to or 
an inexcusable disregard of facts. There is an- 


76 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

other side to this question. There are conscious 
and unconscious labor profiteers. What a strange 
fool a man is who cannot see that higher pay, 
shorter hours, and striking on the job are bound 
to limit supply, which consequently, in the face of 
undiminished demand, automatically increases 
prices. The world right now is faced with an 
abnormal and unprecedented demand for the neces¬ 
sities of life. At the same time it is confronted 
with the menacing fact that wage workers are about 
50% efficient. High wages and short hours would 
not be so serious if we were actually producing to 
the utmost of our ability. We are not doing this. 
No marvel that labor leaders are beginning to urge 
stimulation of production, as the one sure method of 
avoiding economic ruin. Work—good hard, efficient 
work—will save the situation and make way for 
future settlement of the world’s perplexing prob¬ 
lems. 

There is still another phase to this question. The 
masses of this country have wilfully committed 
themselves to the COST OF HIGH LIVING. Why? 
The poor, downtrodden proletariat of America, the 
wage slaves—(as big Bill Haywood calls us)—the 
working stiffs—(as our radical saviors dub us)— 
are living like kings. We have one automobile, for 
every fifteen people in the United States. The pro- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 77 

duct of the Ford, Chevrolet, Oakland, Overland, and 
other moderate priced manufacturers is bought up 
six months in advance. Who is getting these cars? 
Surely not the “so-called” capitalistic class. No, the 
poor robbed American Peasants—(Farmers). And 
the class ridden, downtrodden slaves of industry. 

The movie shows operate all over the country, 
from 11 a. m. to midnight. With the exception 
of a few early hours of the day they are packed 
with enthusiastic fans. Who is paying a million 
a year to Charley Chaplin and Mary Pickford, and 
the rest of the stars and the—near-stars? Whose 
money is buying the great pipe organs and building 
the fine show houses? Surely not the capitalistic 
class. They haven’t sufficient numbers, according to 
our radical friends, to fill the theaters. Who then, 
we ask? The masses. The great common rank 
and file of American citizens. Including America’s 
robbed and poverty stricken farmers; and Ameri¬ 
ca’s down trodden wage slaves. 

The product of the Kimberly diamond mines for 
the year 1920 has been purchased for the citizens 
of this country. The significant report accompany¬ 
ing this is that the rich are not buying many 
diamonds just now. We are the best housed, the 
best fed, the best clothed and the most amused 
people on the earth. Still we kick. We pay high 


78 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


prices because we are the most extravagant people 
in existence. We do violence to every law of econ¬ 
omy and thrift and find ourselves in 15 or 20 years 
“broke.” Then many join the red flag waggers, 
and advocate a mass hold-up of the people who 
have been wise enough to save, scrimp and secure 
financial security. 

We must remember that the great private for¬ 
tunes of this country were started by loyal ad¬ 
herence to the law of economy and thrift. Laws 
which the humblest may know and use. Reader, 
if you still insist on placing the cart of outgo be¬ 
fore the horse of income, you need not be surprised 
if you find cart, horse and driver in the ditch of 
financial distress. Then we expect you will arise 
and curse our form of government, the employers 
and everything else in general, rather than your 
own peanut brain boneheadedness. 

Let us try a strike on buying. Let us confine our¬ 
selves for a while to mere necessities. Let us go 
without some of the things we want. Prices will 
begin to tumble. The profiteers will be caught in a 
jack pot and we will show our good American sense. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


In seeking for a cure of industrial unrest we must 
first of all examine the methods or weapons used by 
men to adjust the differences existing between em¬ 
ployers and employees. Then we must examine 
briefly the doctrines propounded and preached by 
the Utopian dreamers who have been telling us for 
many years that they were offering the one and 
only sure cure for the world’s economic ills. These 
preachers of socialism of various brands are great 
disturbers of the peace. No system of government 
would suit them. They are preachers of class, clash 
and crash. More later. 

The methods and weapons used to secure better 
economic conditions may all be passed without con¬ 
sideration with one exception—the strike. We have 
been anticipating in preceding chapters the cure of 
industrial unrest, and have, because of this, dealt 
sufficiently with the boycott, sabotage, etc. The 
strike, however, is so ! old and has been used to such 
an extent from the very beginning of labor struggles, 
that its success as a weapon, or method, of securing 
economic adjustment of a peaceful and durable na- 


80 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ture may be very accurately gauged. The strike, 
therefore, demands special attention. 

Much confusion of thought exists as to the nature 
and purpose of the strike. First, the strike is a 
weapon of direct action. Many people connect the 
phrase “direct action’’ with violence—riots, bombs 
anarchy, etc. This is a very narrow and erroneous 
idea. When men will not employ the ordinary meth¬ 
ods of political and legal action to secure adjust¬ 
ments, but will resort to other means, whether vio- 
lance accompanies their use or not, they may be said 
to employ the weapons of direct action. The strike 
is an economical weapon. There have been many 
strikes without violence. Peaceful, loyal citizens 
have struck. This weapon, or method used, to en¬ 
force the demands of the workers, no matter how 
just those demands, is one of direct action neverthe¬ 
less. Second, it is significant that every great revolu¬ 
tionist has believed and taught that the purpose of 
the strike was the overthrow of what is termed the 
capitalistic system—meaning, of course, by that the 
present order of society. The strike, especially the 
general strike, is the supreme effort of social revolu¬ 
tion. If violence and bloodshed accompany it, that 
is merely an incident. We are not saying that all 
men who have struck for better conditions in the 
past have been bent upon revolution. We are only 


81 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

calling attention to the purpose of the strike as in¬ 
terpreted by revolutionists of all classes. Every 
strike, no matter how small, carries within itself 
the seeds of revolution. Antagonism and bitterness 
are at the bottom of it. It engenders strife and more 
strife. 

The strike as a weapon or method of securing in¬ 
dustrial peace and justice is an absolute and dis¬ 
gusting failure. Some surface benefits have been 
secured by labor, but at such a tremendous cost in 
money, lives and human fellowship that the results 
secured when compared with the price paid by both 
employer and employee convict both sides before 
the bar of common sense with criminal foolishness 
and down-right disregard of public interests. Who 
can calculate the bitter hatreds which have been 
engendered by strikes. How can we measure the 
priceless values of American brotherhood which have 
been ruined for all time by this insane method. 
Money losses are not to be considered in comparison 
with the ruination of humanitarian impulses and co¬ 
operative fellowship, resulting from the strikes which 
have marred the past years of America’s industrial 
life. .[] 

Let us take a page from labor’s history and try 
to calculate what the loss in terms of co-operation 
and good fellowship means. We are going far 


82 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

enough back to escape the oft repeated excuse that 
radicals caused the trouble. Eadicals on one or 
both sides have undoubtedly caused all strikes, but 
there are many people today who seem to think that 
labor warfare is of recent occurrence and is due 
entirely to the influence of present day radicalism. 
Let us read from the pen of one of labor’s friends. 

“In July, 1892, a most serious difficulty arose in 
Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Carnegie 
Steel Company and its employes at the Homestead 
works. This difficulty grew out of one in the previ¬ 
ous month in regard to wages. No agreement could 
be reached, and the company closed its works on the 
30th day of June, and dicharged its men. It is in¬ 
teresting to know that only a small portion of the 
men were affected by the proposed adjustment of 
wages. Most of them, however, were members of the 
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Work¬ 
ers ; hence the trouble. 

The company had refused to recognize the 
Amalgamated as an organization or to hold any con¬ 
ferences with its committees; it was proposed to 
operate the works with non-union men. The union 
men refused to accept the reduced rate of wages 
and agreed that they would resist the company in its 
attempts, whatever they were, to prosecute its work 
with non-union men. The lodges of the Amalgamat- 


83 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ed Association organized an advisory committee, 
with authority to take full charge of the affairs of 
the strike. All employes of the company were 
ordered to break their contracts and to refuse to 
work until the Amalgamated Association was recog¬ 
nized and its proposed conditions adopted. 

The working men had already resorted to one of 
their familiar methods—that of hanging the presi¬ 
dent of the company in effigy. 

Two days prior to the time provided by the con¬ 
tract under which the men were working the works 
were shut down, and on the Fourth of July the com¬ 
pany asked the sheriff of the county to protect the 
works while they carried out their intention of mak¬ 
ing repairs, as they declared. The employes, how¬ 
ever, organized to defend the works against what 
they called encroachments, or demands to enter; 
that is, they would not allow any one to enter on the 
pretense of repairing the works. As a matter of 
fact the employes of the great Homestead steel 
works took possession of them. When the sheriff’s 
men came near, the employes, who were assembled 
in force, notified them brusquely to leave the place, 
stating that they did not intend to create any dis¬ 
order and that they would not allow any damage 
to be done to the property of the company. They 
also offered to act as deputies in preserving order, 


84 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

but this offer was declined. The advisory committee 
dissolved and the records of that committee were 
destroyed. 

The immediate occasion of the fighting which took 
place later on at Homestead was the approach of a 
body of Pinkerton detectives, who were gathered in 
two barges on the Ohio river, some distance below 
the works. To make a long story short, the work¬ 
men entrenched themselves behind steel billets and 
prepared to resist the approach of the Pinkerton 
barges and all attempts to land, the result being a 
fierce battle brought on by the heavy volley of shots 
fired by the strikers. The Pinkertons were armed 
with Winchester rifles, but they were obliged to land 
and ascend the embankment single file, and so were 
soon driven back to their boats, many of their men 
being killed or wounded by the fire of the en¬ 
trenched strikers. Many attempts to land failed, the 
detectives being subjected constantly to a galling 
fire. 

This opening battle, which took place on the 5th 
of July, about four o’clock in the morning, was con¬ 
tinued during the day and renewed the following 
day,' a ten-pound brass cannon having been secured 
by the strikers and planted so as to command the 
barges moored at the banks of the river. Then an¬ 
other force of a thousand men took up a position 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 85 

on the opposite side of the river, where they pro¬ 
tected themselves by a cannon which they had ob¬ 
tained, and by a breastwork of railroad ties. 

In mid-forenoon the bombardment commenced, the 
cannon were turned on the boats and the firing kept 
up for several hours; but the boats were protected 
by heavy steel plates inside, so efforts were made 
to fire them. Oil was sprayed on the docks and 
sides of the boats, while many barrels of oil were 
emptied into the river above the mooring place of the 
boats, the object being to set fire to it and allow it 
to float against them. The Pinkertons, under these 
warlike preparations and actions, finally threw out 
a flag of truce, which unfortunately was not recog¬ 
nized by the strikers. The officers of the association 
then interfered and the surrender of the Pinkertons 
was arranged. Under the armistice the detectives 
were to be safely guarded on condition that they left 
their arms and ammunition, and having no other 
alternative, they accepted the terms. Seven had 
been killed and twenty or thirty wounded, and on 
their march through the streets they were treated 
with abuse. Eleven workmen and spectators were 
killed in the fights which ensued. 

On the 10th the governor sent the entire force of 
the militia of the commonwealth to Homestead and 
on the 12th the town was placed under martial law, 


86 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


and order was restored. “The Battles of Labor,” 
Wright, from page 128 to 133. 

Here are all the attitudes, .phrases, actions and 
weapons of actual warfare. Both sides, engaged in 
a Civil war like this are from the standpoint of 
Americanism absolutely without excuse. By what 
standards we ask again are we to fix the values of 
good fellowship and brotherly co-operation lost in 
such an affair as this ? It is generally admitted that 
the Golden Rule is the true basis of human rela¬ 
tionships. Where does it appear in this bit of 
bloody labor history? And pray where does Ameri¬ 
canism operate in a shameful incident like this? 

From a mere financial standpoint the strike has 
been as costly as it has been useless. The following 
table of estimated strike costs in the United States 
for the year 1919 will give the reader some faint 
idea of the criminal extravagance of this method of 
settling industrial trouble. 


WHAT STRIKES COST U. S. IN 1919 


Labor’s loss in wages.$ 723,478,300 

Capital’s loss in productivity. 1,266,357,450 

Total for Capital and Labor.$1,989,835,750 






Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


87 


The Biggest Losses Estimated by States 


New York— 


Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

.$100,000,000 

. 300,000,000 

Pennsylvania— 

Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

. 110,000,000 

. 213,000,000 

Ohio— 

Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

. 40,000,000 

. 110,000,000 

Illinois— 

Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

. 90,000,000 

. 175,000,000 

Indiana— 

Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

. 65,000,000 

. 100,000,000 

West Virginia— 

Labor loss . 

Capital loss . 

. 60,000,000 

. 110,000,000 


$400,000,000 


323,000,000 


140,000,000 


265,000,000 


165,000,000 


170,000,000 




















88 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


W ashington— 

Labor loss . 90,000,000 

Capital loss . 125,000,000 

- 215,000,000 

Some idea of what these figures mean may be ob¬ 
tained by going back a few years and studying the 
cost of strikes in five states, Massachusetts, New 
York, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania, covering a 
period of 20 years from January 1, 1881 to Decem¬ 
ber 31, 1900. This, remember, was before so-called 
modern radicalism took a leading part in labor diffi¬ 
culties. The total loss resulting from industrial dis¬ 
turbances during these twenty years amounts to 
$500,000,000. Five Hundred Million dollars would 
make a silver path 12 inches wide, 1,479 miles long 
---or at the present high cost of construction and 
labor it would build 90,909 6-room thoroughly mod¬ 
ern homes; these would house, five people to the 
home, 454,545 people. In other words this $500,000,- 
000 would have bought and paid for modern homes 
enough to have housed better than the entire popula¬ 
tion of the city of Seattle. Or this $500,000,000 
would build a solid silver shaft 2 feet square, 11 y 2 
miles high, a stupendous monument to the utter stu¬ 
pidity of the workers who use the strike as a method 
or weapon to secure industrial justice. 





CHAPTER XIV. 


For years the socialist agitators of various kinds 
have been proclaiming on the street corners, in the 
union halls, and any other place that they could, 
secure a hearing, that the economic, political and 
social millennium would dawn when class distinctions 
were abolished and the proletariat came to its own. 

We have listened to all kinds of radical nonsense. 
It all starts at the same place and ends (to use the 
words of an energetic radical champion) “No one 
knows where.” There is very little uniformity of 
opinion among red prophets. All of them, however, 
use Karl Marx as a starting point and quote his 
statements to prove their theories. This is very 
reasonable for Marx can be made to prove most 
anything from that the earth is flat and the sun do 
move, to the scientific doctrine that the milky way 
was caused by the man in the moon upsetting a 
huge bucket of milk. 

We have yellow socialists (most of them are yel¬ 
low), red socialists, left wingers, right wingers, and 
some buck hand wingers. We have the erudite 
scientific comrade who can stand on the soap box for 


90 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

two hours and discuss the doctrine of evolution in 
all its various ramifications from the primitive proto¬ 
plasm to the richest and most highly developed syn¬ 
thesis (the exploiting capitalist) which the eloquent 
and mighty orator was striving to knock off the 
biological tree with the jaw hone of an ass. 

As we have listened to these marvelous outbursts 
of scientific vivid panning, we imagined Darwin 
turned over in his grave with envy and Karl Marx 
straightened up from shoveling coal, wiped the 
sweat from his brow and viewed with immense satis¬ 
faction this new champion of his theories, while 
Herbert Spencer spiritually scratched his spiritual 
head and propounded another syllogism which shot 
him another million leagues into the “no man’s 
land” of agnosticis mwher aet least he could escape 
the windstorm. To be sure we have learned after¬ 
ward that many of these scientific spellbinders never 
possessed sufficient sense and pep to pass a third 
grade examination, while many others of their num¬ 
ber were entirely unacquainted with that common¬ 
place but very honorable scientific process of ap¬ 
plying their back to an honest day’s work, thereby 
earning their bread by the sweat of their brow. 

Then we have the Utopian dreamers with the 
pink eyes, with the white angelic skin caused by 
deep thought and association with the deeper in- 


91 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

telligence of the future—or by lack of exercise. The 
dreamers who not only walk in their sleep, but 
who are given to lengthy, impractical somnambulistic 
orations. 

Then we have the bold yellowish red, direct ac- 
tionist, the long-haired, gorilla-featured prehistoric 
type of socialist, who scorns the spoutings of his 
scientific comrade and who is impatient with his 
dreaming brother. This is the real fire-eater type. 
The genuine, Simon-pure, consistent, highly devel¬ 
oped socialist who is rapidly reverting to type, who 
seeks by bomb, torch and confusion to feel again 
the peculiar thrill inspired by beating tom-toms 
in the valley of the Ganges or the Congo, the real 
Bill Haywood type who longs to throw off the re¬ 
straints of civilization, and get back into the trees 
where he can hang by his tail and throw cocoanuts 
at his hairy comrades. 

These various brands of socialism are championed 
by the Lenines, Trotzkys, Haywoods and Townleys. 
They all start from a common source and are all 
tarred with the same stick; each wants a hand at 
running this old planet. There isn’t time enough. 
It would take from the dawn of creation to the 
crack of doom to give even a small portion of ’em a 
chance at us. Then, too, the world is so very busy 
trying to advance and develop along good construct- 


92 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

ive lines that it cannot take time off to watch these 
various experiments generally applied. 

Father Time has, however, set out a little section 
of the earth and apparently turned it over to the 
radicals to try out their bit of stage play for the 
general edification and warning to the balance of 
mankind. We refer to poor, unfortunate Russia. 
There the followers of Karl Marx got the 
chance to try their hand. In Russia and from the 
pens of Russia’s dictators we may learn the truth. 

Are we going to exchange the democracies of the 
earth, imperfect as they are, for the class dictator¬ 
ships of Marx, Engles, Lenine or Haywood? Does 
the worker have a better time, work less, receive 
more, and enjoy greater liberty under socialism? 
These and kindred questions will be answered in 
the next chapter. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Facts are stubborn things. They are pitiless and 
inexorable in their operations. Men have spent 
their life time in building up clever philosophies; 
systems of doctrine, argued and apparently irrefuta¬ 
ble in conclusion, and have set them going on the 
tracks of human thought, only to have their sys¬ 
tems demolished by running head on with some 
pitiless stubborn fact. 

No matter how cleverly reasoned out, or how 
subtle in metaphysics a doctrine may be, if it can¬ 
not stand contact with facts, the only thing to be 
done is to clear the right-of-way of the twisted and 
wrecked system, board the train of truth, and ride 
into the next station of mental assurance. 

The various phases of Socialism founded upon the 
teachings of Marx are, at the present time, in a 
head-on meet with facts that will not down. Russia 
has been a blessing to the world. When she emerges 
at last from her baptism of blood and fire, and takes 
her place among the world’s democracies, she should 
be hailed as a contributor to human freedom. Marx¬ 
ism of every shade has been tried out in that un- 


94 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

fortunate land, and the world need puzzle itself no 
longer as to how socialism will work in actual 
practice. 

We are going to select a few items which have 
been held up to us for years as blessings to be se¬ 
cured under Socialism. We are going to examine 
these items in the light of Russia’s experience as in¬ 
terpreted by no less a champion of radicalism than 
Lenine himself. 

First. Socialism has promised cessation of war. 
Socialists have been strong pacifists, and have advo¬ 
cated the disarmament of this nation, not only in 
times of peace, but in times of war, when, to have 
followed their advice, would have meant the over¬ 
throw of our nation. They have opposed military 
action, and have thrown bombs into parades 
formed by patriotic citizens for the purpose of 
awakening interest in preparedness. But what do 
they do when they get into power. 

Lenine will answer. 

‘‘To insert ‘disarmament’ into our program is 
equivalent to saying w T e are opposed to the use of 
arms. But such a statement would contain not a 
grain of Marxism, any more than would the equiva¬ 
lent statement, ‘we are opposed to the use of force.’ ” 

A suppressed class which has no desire to learn 
the use of arms, and to bear arms, deserves nothing 


95 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

else than to be treated as slaves. We cannot, unless 
we wish to transform ourselves into mere bourgeoise 
pacifists, forget that we are living in a society based 
on classes, and that there is no escape from such a so¬ 
ciety, except by the class struggle and the overthrow 
of the power of the ruling class. 

In every class society, whether it be based on 
slavery, serfdom, or, as at the present moment, on 
wage-labor, the class of oppressors is an armed class. 
Not only the standing army of the present day, but 
also the present-day popular militia—even in the 
most democratic bourgeoise republics, as in Switzer¬ 
land—means an armament of the bourgeoise against 
the proletariat. 

“How can you, in the face of this fact, ask the 
revolutionary Social Democracy to set up the ‘ de¬ 
mand’ of ‘disarmament?’ To ask this is to re¬ 
nounce completely the standpoint of the class strug¬ 
gle, to give up the very thought of revolution. Our 
watchword must be: to arm the proletariat so that 
it may defeat, expropriate, and disarm the bour¬ 
geoise. This is the only possible policy of the revolu¬ 
tionary class, a policy arising directly from the actual 
evolution of capitalistic militarism, in fact, dictated 
by the evolution.”—From “The Disarmament Cry,” 
by N. Lenine, in the Class Struggle, May-June, 1918. 

So much for the pacifism and the disarmament 


96 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

which the socialists so loudly proclaim. It must never 
be forgotten that the Bolsheviki came into power in 
Russia by a military coup d’etat. 

Second. Democracy under Socialism has been 
painted in glowing colors. We have been told that 
every man would be free and equal, and classes in 
society would be abolished. The facts, however, all 
go to prove that Democracy will perish from the 
face of the earth, when Socialism gains universal 
control. 

Lenine has admitted with great frankness that 
“Just as one hundred and fifty thousand lordly 
land owners under Czarism dominated the one hun¬ 
dred and thirty millions of Russian peasants, so two 
hundred thousand members of the Bolshevik party 
are imposing their proletarian will on the mass, but 
this time in the interest of the latter.”—From the 
New International, April 1918. 

“It is a curious illustration of the superficial char¬ 
acter of the Bolshevist mentality that a man so 
gifted intellectually as Lenine undoubtedly is, should 
advance in justification of his policy, a plea so re¬ 
pugnant to morality and intelligence, and that it 
should be quietly accepted by men and women call¬ 
ing themselves radical revolutionists. Some years 
ago a well-known American capitalist announced 
with great solemnity that he, and men like himself, 


97 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

were the agents of Providence, charged with manag¬ 
ing industry ‘for the good of the people.’ Natur¬ 
ally, his naive claim provoked the scornful laughter 
of every radical in the land. Yet, strange as it may 
seem, whenever I have pointed out to popular audi¬ 
ences that Lenine asserted the right of two hundred 
thousand proletarians to impose their rule upon Rus¬ 
sia, always, without a single exception, some de 
fender of the Bolsheviki—generally a socialist or a 
member of the I. W. W. has entered the plea, ‘Yes, 
but it is for the good of the people!’ 

“If the Bolsheviki had wanted to see the realiza¬ 
tion of the ideals of the Revolution, they would have 
found in the conditions existing immediately prior 
to their insurrection, a challenge, calling them to 
the service of the nation, in support of the Pro¬ 
visional Government and the Preliminary Parlia¬ 
ment. They would have permitted nothing to im¬ 
peril the success of the program that was so well 
advanced. As it was, determination to defeat that 
program, was their impelling motive. Not only did 
they fear and oppose political democracy: they were 
equally opposed to democracy in industry, to that 
democracy, in the economic life of the nation, which 
every Socialist movement in the world had at all 
times acknowledged to be its goal. As we shall see, 
they united to political dictatorship, industrial die- 


98 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


tatorship. They did not want democracy, but power. 
They did not want peace, even as they wanted 
power.'’—By John Spargo. 

Again Lenine says in the New International for 
April, 1918, “The word ‘democracy’ cannot be scien¬ 
tifically applied to the Communist party. Since 
March, 1917, the word democracy is simply a shackle 
fastened upon the revolutionary nation and prevent¬ 
ing it from establishing boldly, freely, and regard¬ 
less of all obstacles a new form of power: the Coun¬ 
cil of Workmen’s, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, 
harbinger of the abolition of every form of au¬ 
thority.” 

So much for the Democracy of Marx, Lenine, 
Trotzky, Haywood and Co. We prefer the Democ¬ 
racy of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, 
Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Having examined the pacifism and democracy of 
the radicals in actual practice, we are going to 
notice how they have fulfilled their promises to the 
toilers: First, in regards to equal wages for all 
workers; Secondly, in regards to shorter hours and 
less work. 

First, on the promise to reduce salaries to the 
standard remuneration of the average workers, 
Lenine says, “Without the direction of specialists 
of different branches of knowledge, technique and 
experience, the transformation toward Socialism is 
impossible, for Socialism demands a conscious mass 
movement toward a higher productivity of labor in 
comparison with capitalism, and on the basis which 
had been attained by capitalism. In view of the 
considerable delay in accounting and control in 
general, although we have succeeded in defeating 
sabotage, we have not yet created an environment 
which would put at our disposal the bourgeoise spe¬ 
cialists. Many sabotagers are coming into our serv¬ 
ice, but the best organizers and the biggest special¬ 
ists can be used by the state either in the old bour- 


100 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

geoise way (that is, for a higher salary), or in the 
new proletarian way (that is, by creating such an 
environment of universal accounting and control 
which would inevitably and naturally attract and 
gain the submission of specialists). We are forced 
now to make use of the old bourgeoise method, and 
agree to a very high remuneration for the services of 
the biggest of the bourgeoise specialists. All those 
who are acquainted with the facts understand this, 
but not all give sufficient thought to the significance 
of such a measure on the part of the proletarian 
state. It is clear that the measure is a compromise, 
that it is a defection from the principles of the Paris 
Commune and of any proletarian rule, which de¬ 
mand the reduction of salaries to the standard of 
remuneration of the average workers—principles 
which demand that ‘career hunting’ be fought by 
deeds, not words. 

“Furthermore, it is clear that such a measure is 
not merely a halt in a certain part and to a certain 
degree of the offensive against capitalism (for cap¬ 
italism is not a quantity of money, but a definite 
social relationship), but also a step backward by 
our Socialist Soviet state, which has from the very 
beginning proclaimed and carried on a policy of re¬ 
ducing high salaries to the standard wages of the 
average worker. 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 101 

“The corrupting influence of high salaries is be- 
3 r ond question both on the Soviets and on the mass of 
the workers. The sooner we ourselves, workers and 
peasants, learn better labor discipline, and a higher 
technique of toil, making use of the bourgeoise spe¬ 
cialists for this purpose, the sooner we will get rid 
of the need of paying tribute to these specialists.” 

Here is a frank admission that the industrial pro¬ 
letariat, so : called, when put to the test was unable 
“to take over industry.” This is the very thing, 
however, that the I. W. W.’s have been trying to 
persuade America’s workers to do from their very 
inception as an organization. The men who are 
managing industry in America today are with rare 
exceptions, from the ranks of the wage earners. They 
proved their capability, therefore they were promot¬ 
ed. The world is so constituted that it needs brains, 
skill and faithfulness, to manage its affairs. Indi¬ 
viduals manifesting these qualifications very quickly 
forge ahead. 

One question presses for answer in connection with 
Lenine’s admission. If the specialists spoken of in 
the above quotation, receive larger salaries than the 
average remuneration, and they save some of this 
margin, will they not eventually become wealthy— 
potential capitalists? If they should what becomes 
of the Socialist revolution? It is blown to frag- 


102 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

merits. In other words, here is a FACT which will 
not down, viz., superior service, merits superior re¬ 
ward and receives it even under the Bolsheviki. This 
will always be true. It is the natural and moral 
process. 

Secondly, the radicals have been telling the work¬ 
ers that they will have to work but three to six hours 
a day, at an easy pace, under the beneficent reign of 
Lenine and Haywood. This is very pleasing to the 
natural man. Of course, it matters not that all 
wealth is founded upon toil. The hardest workers 
in field, shop and office are ordinarily the most suc¬ 
cessful. Jehovah said to Father Adam, at the very 
dawn of human history, “In the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the 
ground; for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’’ 

Here we have a divinely announced FACT. It 
will stand long after the Red Flaggers have rotted 
in their graves, and their names have been for¬ 
gotten among men. Lenine acknowledges as much 
when he says in “The Soviets at Work:” 

“In every Socialist revolution, however, the main 
task of the proletariat, and of the poorest peasantry 
led by it, and hence, also, the Socialist revolution in 
Russia inaugurated by us on November 7, 1917, con¬ 
sists in the positive and constructive work of es- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 103 

tablishing an extremely complex and delicate net 
of newly organized relationships, covering the sys¬ 
tematic production and distribution of products 
which are necessary for the existence of tens of mil¬ 
lions of people. The successful realization of such 
a revolution depends on the original historical, creat¬ 
ive work of the majority of the population, and first 
of all of the majority of the toilers. The victory of 
the Socialist revolution will not be assured, unless 
the proletariat and the poorest peasantry manifest 
sufficient consciousness, idealism, self-sacrifice, and 
persistence. With the creation of a new—the Soviet 
—type of state, offering to the oppressed toiling 
masses the opportunity to participate actively in the 
free construction of a new society, we have solved 
only a small part of the difficult task. The main 
difficulty is in the economic domain; to raise the pro¬ 
ductivity of labor, to establish strict and universal 
accounting and control of production and distribu¬ 
tion, and actually to socialize production/ ’ 

Again Lenine says: ‘ ‘ The most conscious vanguard 
of the Russian proletariat has already turned to the 
problem of increasing labor discipline. For in¬ 
stance, the central committee of the Metallurgical 
Union and the Central Union of the Trades Unions 
have begun work on respective measures and drafts 
of decrees. This work should be supported and ad- 


104 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

vanced by all means. We should immediately in¬ 
troduce piece work and try it out in-practice. We 
should try out every scientific and progressive sug¬ 
gestion of the Taylor System; we should compare 
the earnings with the general total of production, or 
the exploitation results of railroad and water trans¬ 
portation, and so on. 

‘ ‘ The Russian is a poor worker in comparison with 
the workers of the advanced nations, and this could 
not be otherwise under the regime of the Czar and 
other remnants of feudalism. The last word of 
capitalism in this respect, the Taylor System—as 
well as all progressive measures of capitalism—com¬ 
bine the refined cruelty of bourgeoise exploitation 
and a number of most valuable scientific attain¬ 
ments in the analysis of mechanical motions during 
work, in dismissing superfluous and useless motions, 
in determining the most correct methods of the 
work, the best system of accounting and control, etc. 
The Soviet Republic must adopt valuable and scien¬ 
tific and technical advance in this field. The possi¬ 
bility of Socialism will be determined by our suc¬ 
cess in combining the Soviet rule, and the Soviet 
organization of management, with the latest pro¬ 
gressive measures of capitalism. We must intro¬ 
duce in Russia the study and the teaching of the 
Taylor System and its systematic trial and adapta- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 105 

tion. While working to increase the productivity of 
labor, we must at the same time take into account 
the peculiarities of the transition period from cap¬ 
italism to Socialism, which requires, on one hand 
that we lay the foundation for the Socialist organiza¬ 
tion of emulation, and, on the other hand, require 
the use of compulsion, so that the slogan of dictator¬ 
ship of the proletariat should not be weakened by 
the practice of a too mild proletarian government. 

“The resolution of the last (Moscow) Congress of 
the Soviets advocates as the most important problem 
at present, the creation of ‘efficient organization’ 
and higher discipline. Such resolutions are now 
readily supported by everybody. But that their 
realization requires compulsion, and compulsion in 
the form of a dictatorship, is ordinarily not com¬ 
prehended. And yet, it would be the greatest 
stupidity and the most absurd opportunism to sup¬ 
pose that the transition from Capitalism to Socialism 
is possible without compulsion and dictatorship. The 
Marxian theory has long ago criticized beyond mis¬ 
understanding this petty bourgeoise-democratic and 
anarchistic nonsense. And Russia of 1917-18 con¬ 
firms in this respect the Marxian theory so clearly, 
palpably, and convincingly that only those who are 
hopelessly stupid or who have firmly determined to 
ignore the truth can still err in this respect. Either 


106 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

a Kornilov dictatorship (if Kornilov be taken as 
Russian type of bourgeoise Cavaignac) or a dictator¬ 
ship of the proletariat—no other alternative is 
possible.” 

How is this Mr. American workingman ? These are 
Comrade Lenine’s own words. A very keen ob¬ 
server and able writer has well said, “There is not a 
nation in the world with a working class movement 
of any strength where it would be possible to intro¬ 
duce the industrial servitude here described.”—John 
Spargo. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


In concluding our discussion of Socialism in prac¬ 
tice, we wish to notice how these great champions of 
free speech protect the freedom of the press. We 
quote from their official organ, Pravda, July 5th, 
1918. 

“The press is a most dangerous weapon in the 
hands of our enemies. We will tear it from them, 
we will reduce it to impotence. It is the moment 
for us to prepare battle. We will be inflexible in our 
defense of the rights of the exploited. The struggle 
will be decisive. We are going to smite the jour¬ 
nals with fines, to shut them up, to arrest the editors, 
and hold them as hostages/ ’ 

If a statement like this was made by the proper 
authorities, against the radical press for their efforts 
to overthrow American Government, immediately a 
great howl would go up about interference with 
constitutional rights, the downtrodden proletariat, 
etc. And yet it is perfectly evident that these are 
the only kinds of methods the radicals believe in; 
therefore, they must respect the efforts of our offi- 


108 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

cials to protect the priceless heritage of our liberty 
against their insidious propaganda. 

A great deal has been said about our unjust and 
rigid application and enforcement of the law. We 
workers have been led to believe that when Social¬ 
ism gained control, Law enforcement would be done 
away with and Mercy would smile on the poor un¬ 
fortunate criminal. Let us see how the Bolsheviki 
do it. We quote from Izvestya for July 28, 1918: 

“Two village robbers were condemned to death. 
All the people of Semenovskaia and the surround¬ 
ing communes were invited to the ceremony. On 
July 6th, at midday, a great crowd of interested 
spectators arrived at the village of Loupia. The 
organizers of the execution gave to each of the by¬ 
standers the opportunity of flogging the condemned 
to obtain from them supplementary confessions. The 
number of blows was unlimited. Then a vote of the 
spectators was taken as to the method of execution. 
The majority was for hanging. In order that the 
spectacle could be easily seen, the spectators were ar¬ 
ranged in three ranks—the first row sat down, the 
second rested on the knee, and the third stood up.” 

For your edification we are going to quote from 
Chapter 13 of Article 4 of the constitution of the 
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. This 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 109 

quotation sets forth the qualification for voting in 
the following language: 

“64. The right to vote and to be elected to the 
Soviets is enjoyed by the following citizens, irre¬ 
spective of religion, nationality, domicile, etc., of the 
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, of both 
sexes, who shall have completed their eighteenth year 
by the day of election: 

“(a) All who have acquired the means of living 
through labor that is productive and useful to so¬ 
ciety, and also persons engaged in housekeeping 
which enables the former to do productive work, i. e., 
laborers and employees of all classes who are em¬ 
ployed in industry, trade, agriculture, etc.; and 
peasants and Cossacks agricultural laborers who em¬ 
ploy no help for the purpose of making profits. 

“(b) Soldiers of .the army and navy of the’ 
Soviets. 

“(c) Citizens of the two preceding categories who 
have to any degree lost their capacity to work. 

Note 1—Local Soviets may, upon approval of 
the central power, lower the age standard mentioned 
herein. 

“Note 2—Non-citizens mentioned in Paragraph 
20 (Article 2, Chapter Five) have the right to vote. 

“65. The following persons enjoy neither the 
right to vote nor the right to be voted for, even 


110 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

though they belong to one of the categories enum¬ 
erated above, namely: 

“(a) Persons who employ hired labor in order to 
obtain from it an increase in profits. 

“(b) Persons who have income without doing any 
work, such as interest from capital, receipts from 
property, etc. 

“(c) Private merchants, trade and commercial 
brokers. 

“(d) Monks and clergy of all denominations. 

“(e) Employers and agents of the former police, 
the gendarme corps, and the Okhrana (Czar’s secret 
service), also members of the former reigning 
dynasty. 

“(f) Persons who have in legal form been de¬ 
clared demented or mentally deficient, and also per¬ 
sons under guardianship. 

“(g) Persons who have been deprived by a 
Soviet of their rights of citizenship because of selfish 
or dishonorable offenses, for the period fixed by the 
sentence.” 

For purposes of comment on this marvelous in¬ 
strument of Democracy (?) we cannot do better 
than to quote liberally from the pen of John Spargo. 

“What the Bolshevik constitution would mean if 
practically applied to the American life of today can 
be briefly indicated. The following classes would 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 111 

certainly be entitled to vote and to be elected to 
office: 

“1. All wage-earners engaged in the production 
of goods and utilities regarded by some designated 
authority as ‘productive and useful to society/ 

“2. Teachers and educators engaged in the public 
service. 

“3. All farmers owning and working their own 
farms without hired help of any kind. 

“4. All wage-earners engaged in the public serv¬ 
ice as employees of the state, subdivisions of the 
state, or public service corporations—such as postal 
clerks, street-railway workers, electricians, and so 
on. 

“5. Wives and others engaged in keeping the 
homes of the foregoing so as to enable them to work. 

“6. The ‘soldiers of the army and navy’—wheth¬ 
er all officers are included is not clear from the 
document. 

“Now let us see what classes would be as cer¬ 
tainly excluded from the right to vote and to be 
voted for. 

“1. Every merchant from the keeper of a corner 
grocery store to the owner of a great mercantile es¬ 
tablishment. 

“2. Every banker, every commission agent, every 


112 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

broker, every insurance agent, every real-estate 
dealer. 

‘‘3. Every farmer who hires help of any kind— 
even a single ‘hand/ 

“4. Every petty contractor, garage-keeper, or 
other person employing hired help whatever includ¬ 
ing the professional writer who hires a stenographer, 
the doctor who hires a chauffeur, and the dentist who 
hires a mechanic assistant. 

“5. Every clergyman and minister of the Gospel. 

“6. Every person whose income is derived from 
inherited wealth or from invested earnings, includ¬ 
ing all who live upon annuities provided by gift or 
bequest. ” 

“7. Every person engaged in housekeeping for 
persons included in any of the foregoing six cate¬ 
gories—including the wives of such disqualified per¬ 
sons. 

“There are many occupational groups whose civic 
status is not so easily defined. The worker engaged 
in making articles of luxury, enjoyed only by the 
privileged few, could hardly have a better claim to 
a vote than the housekeeper of a man whose income 
was derived from foreign investments, or than the 
chauffeur of a man whose income was derived from 
government bonds. All three represent, presumably, 
types of that parasitic labor which subjects those 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 113 

engaged in it to disfranchisement. Apparently, 
though not certainly, then, the following would also 
be disfranchised. 

“1. All lawyers except those engaged by the 
public authorities for public service. 

“2. All teachers and educators other than those 
engaged in the public service. 

“3. All bankers, managers of industries, commer¬ 
cial travelers, experts and accountants except those 
employed in the public service, or whose labor is 
judged by a competent tribunal to be necessary and 
useful. 

“4. All editors, journalists, authors of books and 
plays, except as special provision might be provided 
for individuals. 

“5. All persons engaged in occupations which a 
competent tribunal decided to classify as non-essen¬ 
tial or non-productive. 

“Any serious attempt to introduce such restric¬ 
tions and limitations of the right of suffrage in 
America would provoke irresistible revolt. It would 
be justly and properly regarded as an attempt to 
arrest the forward march of the nation, and to turn 
its energies in a backward direction. It would be 
just as reactionary in the political world as it would 
be in the industrial world to revert back to hand- 
tool production; to substitute the ox-team for the 


114 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

railway system, the hand-loom for the power-loom, 
the flail for the threshing machine, the sickle for the 
modern harvesting machine, the human courier for 
the electric telegraph. 

“Yet we find a radical like Mr. Max Eastman 
giving his benediction and approval to precisely such 
a program in Russia as a substitute for universal 
suffrage. We find him quoting with apparent ap¬ 
proval an article setting forth Lenine’s plan, hardly 
disguised, to disfranchise every farmer who em¬ 
ploys even a single hired helper. 

“Lenine’s position is quite clear. ‘Only the prole¬ 
tariat or the poorest peasants (the semi-proletariat 
as they are called in our program), may undertake 
the steps toward Socialism that have become abso¬ 
lutely unavoidable and non-postponable—the peas¬ 
ants want to retain their small holdings and to arrive 
at some plane of equal distribution—So be it. No 
sensible Socialist will quarrel with a pauper peasant 
on this ground. If the lands are confiscated, so long 
as the proletarians rule in the great centers, and 
all political power is handed over to the proletariat, 
the rest will take care of itself/ Yet, in spite of 
Lenine’s insistence that all political power be ‘hand¬ 
ed over to the proletariat,’ in spite of a score of 
similar utterances which might be quoted, and, 
finally, in spite of the Soviet Constitution which so 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 115 

obviously excluded from tlie right to vote a large 
part of the adult population, an American Bolshe¬ 
vist pamphleteer has the effrontery to insult the in¬ 
telligence of his readers by the stupid and palpably 
false statement that ‘even at the present time 95 
per cent in Russia can vote, while in the United 
States only 65 per cent can vote.’ 

“Of course it is only as a temporary measure that 
this dictatorship of a class is to be maintained. It 
is designed only for the period of transition and ad¬ 
justment. In time the adjustment will be made, all 
forms of social parasitism and economic exploitation 
will disappear, and then it will be both possible and 
natural to revert to democratic government. Too 
simple and naive to be trusted alone in a world so 
full of trickery and tricksters as ours, are they who 
find any assurance in this promise. They are surely 
among the most gullible of our humankind! 

‘ ‘ Of course the answer to the claim is a very simple 
one: It is that no class gaining privilege and power 
ever surrenders it until it is compelled to do so. 
Every one who has read the pre-Marxian literature 
dealing with the dictatorship of the proletariat 
knows how insistent is the demand that the period 
of dictatorship must be prolonged as much as possi¬ 
ble. Even Marx himself insisted, on one occasion at 
least, that it must be maintained as long as possible, 


116 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

and in the letter of Johan von Miquel, already quot¬ 
ed, we find the same thought expressed in the same 
terms, ‘as long as possible/ But even if we put 
aside these warnings of human experience and of 
recorded history, and persuade ourselves that in 
Russia we have a wholly new phenomenon, a class 
possessing powers of dictatorship animated by a 
burning passion to relinquish those powers as quickly 
as possible, is it not still evident that the social ad¬ 
justments that must be made to reach the stage 
where, according to the Bolshevik standards, polit¬ 
ical democracy can be introduced, must, under the 
most favorable circumstances conceivable, take 
many, many years? Even Lenine admits that ‘a 
sound solution of the problem of increasing the pro¬ 
ductivity of labor’ (which lies at the very heart of 
the problem we are now discussing) ‘requires at 
least (especially after a most distressing and destruc¬ 
tive war) several years.’ 

“From the point of view of social democracy the 
basis of the Bolshevik state is reactionary and un¬ 
sound. The true Socialist policy is that set forth by 
Wilhelm Liebknecht in the following words: “The 
political power which the Social Democracy aims at, 
and which it will win no matter what its enemies 
may do, has not for its object the establishment of 
the dictatorship of the proletariat but the suppres- 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 117 


sion of the dictatorship of the bourgeoise.”—Bol¬ 
shevism by John Spargo, pages 279-283. 

It is unfortunate for the Socialists that they ever 
had the opportunity to put their doctrines into prac¬ 
tice. It is, however, very fortunate for the rest of 
the world that it has had a chance to see what they 
would do when they had an opportunity. Their eco¬ 
nomic and industrial philosophy has met hard and 
stubborn facts. Let us clear the track of the tangled 
and twisted wreckage, and board the train of Amer¬ 
ican Truth for the station of Industrial Peace. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


One would think that a condition so intricate as 
Industrial Unrest, one so full of complex problems, 
having to do with the welfare of one hundred and 
ten million people, would require many chapters of 
discussion to propose a cure. Such would be the 
case if we had a new remedy to propose. We have 
not. The cure we are to set forth is simple. We 
defy any man or organization to produce a better 
one. It is an absolute cure. We are willing to stake 
our life on its effectiveness. It is old, so old, and 
yet it is American. It is applied Americanism. We 
propose it with no fear of successful contradiction. 
It is no Utopian dream. It is not a paper cure. It 
has never failed. It will not only cure America’s in¬ 
dustrial, social and political ills but will, if faith¬ 
fully applied, heal the world. It will end strikes, 
boycotts and lockouts. It will put an end to in¬ 
justice, strife and war. This cure does not await the 
movement of the mass for application. The in¬ 
dividual may practice it with a peaceful assurance 
of success. The principles involved in the cure are 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 119 

the inspiration of individualism and the cement of 
colleetiveness. 

Before announcing this cure let us go back into 
American history for a moment. What do we find 
to be the predominant mental characteristic of, for 
instance, the Pilgrim Fathers? Their love of lib¬ 
erty. What inspired that love of liberty? Their 
deep religious zeal and love of justice and truth as 
revealed in the character of God outlined in the 
Bible. Perhaps they were extremists in many things. 
They were, to be sure, radically religious. In en¬ 
deavoring to get away from what we consider their 
fanaticism, have we not departed also from the es¬ 
sential and truthful things they believed and prac¬ 
ticed? America would be far better off if she were 
full of religious radicals rather than to be as she is 
today, full of Red radicals and traitors. We are not 
pleading for denominationalism. We are not ad¬ 
vocating any particular creed. We are not forced to 
accept the extreme and fanatical ideas of our 
fathers. We are, nevertheless, coming back to the 
essential things, wdiich made them what they were, 
or we are going to wreck. The banks of the stream 
of time are literally strewn with the wreckage of 
great nations. Let us be warned in time. 

As we study the life and temper of the men who 
gave this nation to the world we discover that Amer- 


120 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

icanism is a spiritual attitude which inspires lofty 
idealism and produces just and humanitarian rela¬ 
tionships. Democracy is Biblical. Democracy is the 
Spirit of God, and is in perfect accord with the 
teachings of Jesus. Jesus was the world’s great 
champion of Democracy. He was finally murdered 
by a clique, a minority which sought to keep alive 
caste and was bent on dictatorship. The teachings of 
the Carpenter of Nazareth are the foundation and 
inspiration of democracy. The teachings of Jesus 
were also the inspiration and the guide of those 
original Americans who, “being dead, yet speak.” 

The Pilgrim Fathers existed in England and Hol¬ 
land as a church. They were, until they reached the 
New World, nothing more than a voluntary associa¬ 
tion, first for religious purposes and then for immi¬ 
gration. When they landed on these shores they 
knew civil government would be necessary. They 
met the demand in the spirit of their religious faith. 
Forty-one members of the original company formed 
themselves into a body politic and agreed to choose 
such officers, and make such laws as their circum¬ 
stances might make necessary; and they promised 
submission and obedience to this rule of the whole. 
They styled themselves free men. Let us read the 
document these original Americans drew up and 
signed. 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 121 

The compact was as follows: “In the name of 
God, amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the 
loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King 
James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, 
and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., hav¬ 
ing undertaken, for the glory of God, and advance¬ 
ment of the Christian faith, and honor of our king 
and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in 
the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, 
solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and 
of one another, covenant and combine ourselves to¬ 
gether into a civil body politic, for our better order¬ 
ing and preservation, and furtherance of the ends 
aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, 
and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, 
constitutions, and offices from time to time as shall 
be thought most meet and convenient for the gen¬ 
eral good of the colony; unto which we promise 
all due submission and obedience. In witness where¬ 
of we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape 
Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign 
of our sovereign lord, King James of England, 
France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland 
the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620.’’ 

The spirit of loyalty to God and country breathes 
in every word of this wonderful instrument. These 
early American free men had been persecuted and 


122 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

driven from pillar to post by England’s haughty 
ruler yet they ever strove to be loyal to the last. Our 
forefathers never broke faith with their Motherland 
until they were convinced beyond all peradventure 
that freedom would be lost by future fealty. 

Compare these with some of our modern Ameri¬ 
cans (?) who are willing at a moment’s notice to 
take up any kind of a foreign new fangled movement 
against our institutions. The revolutionist and 
radicals in our midst are, but with rare exceptions, 
combustible, erratic, irresponsible, unappreciative, 
fly-by-night fools. 

Observe the faith and spirit manifested in this 
agreement. Our land may be cursed with unbelief, 
her churches may become deserted, the lip of gross 
materialism may curl in scorn at Christianity, but we 
can never escape the fact that this nation was given 
to the world by virtue of the faith of a few deter¬ 
mined souls. They came here for the “advance¬ 
ment of the Christian Faith.” They did not commit 
us to creed nor denomination. America stands for 
freedom of Conscience. Those first Americans did, 
however, lay the cornerstone of this nation deep in 
the conceptions of the Brotherhood of Man and the 
Fatherhood of God. These facts are as thoroughly 
established as the pillars of Hercules and as immuta¬ 
ble as the granite sides of the everlasting hills. The 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 123 

first Americans were inspired, guided and corrected 
by one great rule—‘The Golden Rule.” Despite 
their infirmities and their extreme notions the rule by 
which they sought to live and which made them 
great is the rule of Americanism and is the only pro¬ 
gram of life which will assure contentment and suc¬ 
cess. 

It reads “Therefore all things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them; for this is the law and prophets.” Who can 
stand before this lofty standard of human actions 
and relationship and be unrepentant; and yet this 
is Democracy, this is Americanism. America is God’s 
last great effort to idealize, democratize and spirit¬ 
ualize the world. The spirit of America is not the 
Spirit of Grab. We have hurried to get rich. We 
have apparently forgotten certain great principles, 
but what historian can place his finger on a spot in 
our national history where we have taken up arms, 
except in defense of human freedom and the highest 
ideals ? 

Viscount Bryce, the great English statesman, has 
well said, “To understand America you must under¬ 
stand the idealism of her people.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this 
is the law and the prophets.”—Jesus. 

Here we have democracy, brotherhood, freedom 
and justice. This is Americanism. Does not 
America stand for these lofty principles ? Is not our 
flag the emblem of these ideas? Are we afraid to 
apply them ? 

As a people we believe in individualism. We believe 
also in collectivism and in collective representation. 
Apply these doctrines to industry according to the 
Golden Rule and we have the “Cure of Industrial 
Unrest.” We readily admit that perfection is not 
for human beings but honest effort to approximate 
perfection in our relationship one with the other 
means individual and national health, wealth and 
peace. This is true whether the idea is applied to 
our social, political or industrial life. 

The Golden Rule is the protective, inspirational 
and corrective principle of individualism. It inspires 
individual effort, protects the successful and saves 
the weak from the power of the strong. We need 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 125 

men and women in this great day of opportunity and 
crisis who can shake themselves out of the mass and 
make their way to victory. The great men of the 
land are individualists. Everything was set dead 
against them. Many of them were without natural 
qualifications but taking advantage of America’s 
fundamental equality, the equality of opportunity, 
they worked themselves from poverty to wealth, 
from obscurity to fame. Our history is so full of 
examples that we hardly know how to select the 
best. We are not going to try. If a nation of such 
power, wealth, and opportunity can be brought into 
blooming life by a few sturdy souls, such as the 
Pilgrim Fathers, the Puritans and others, what bet¬ 
ter example do we need of the opportunities and 
spirit of America ? In such an atmosphere a Lincoln 
rising from rail splitter to President, or a poor boy 
climbing from poverty to wealth, or a worker ris¬ 
ing from laborer to manager is perfectly natural and 
merely an incident. Where is the old American 
hickory in the back bone and the iron in the blood 
which caused the founders of this great democracy 
to brave anything, suffer anywhere and conquer 
everywhere. Brother go find yourself. Never mind 
the mass. Laugh your difficulties in the face. Gird 
up the loins of your mind. The opportunities of this 
land are on touch. Talk yourself out of the paralyz- 


126 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


ing nonsense of the Reds. Their doctrines will ruin 
you. Do not spoil your splendid powers by sitting 
by and grumbling while opportunity smiles in your 
face and others less able climb the hill of achieve¬ 
ment, ahead of you. 

They say opportunity comes but once, it is a lie. 
America is a land of second chances—yea more— 
but the last will come and go some day and you will 
be so busy finding fault that you will never know 
when it passes. Yes, the democracy of Jesus, of 
America demands individual push and effort. There 
is room enough in this great world for all. None need 
stoop to robbery or crookedness to succeed; such are 
un-American. 

Apply the thought to the job in your shop. Are 
you a poor simpleton trembling at the word of the 
walking delegate, paying per capita tax to keep 
the labor leaders in fat and easy jobs, a member of 
a movement which may not be elastic and big enough 
to take advantage of the new day? They do not 
recognize your worth and value. You count one. 
Wake up! Nothing can stand before you. You can¬ 
not fail. Make the best of this day and task and 
prepare yourself for tomorrow. Be an American in 
pep, initiative and accomplishment. Do not be fool 
enough to imagine that anyone is as interested in 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 127 

you as you, yourself. This is your day. Brace up 
and face the fight like a man. 

Americanism stands also for collective bargain¬ 
ing. Why should workers be denied representation 
in industry? We are not advocating any particular 
system of shop organization. Most assuredly we do 
not believe that the American Federation of Labor 
has got any monopoly on the practice of collective 
bargaining. We are simply recommending that the 
principles of democracy, as we find them in the 
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 
the United States, be applied to industry. 

The employers practice collective bargaining in 
the representation of their business. By what rule 
of justice do they deny this right to their employees 
if they desire it. The principle recognizes mutual 
rights; the willingness to come together and talk 
over the affairs of an industrial establishment; the 
desire not only to talk them over, but to adjust diff¬ 
erences. Americanization in industry will keep alive 
the human touch and will give each toiler the feel¬ 
ing that he is part of the concern for which he works. 
Americanization in industry will mean industrial 
democracy and the humblest worker will have an 
opportunity to express his grievances. Some of the 
greatest industrial establishments in the United 
States have practiced industrial democracy for years 


128 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

under one form or another of organization. They 
have been successful and have been free from strikes. 

The workers in any institution should, if they so 
desire, have the right to organize and elect from 
their midst representatives who will have at all times 
their interests at heart. These representatives should 
be elected by the men and from the shop in which 
the men are at work. This is the American way. 
Can the reader imagine the state of California send¬ 
ing to New York for a man to be elected to the 
United States Senate to represent the interests of 
the citizens of California at the national Capitol? 
No! They elect a citizen of their own state who has 
lived in their midst and who knows their interests. 
So likewise Americanism in Industry means the 
workers shall have representatives elected from their 
own midst. Men who know the conditions under 
which they work and who have an interest in the 
industry by which they earn their daily bread. 


IN CONCLUSION 

We wish to address a few concluding words first 
to THE EMPLOYERS. We have purposely refrained 
from suggesting any particular system of shop or¬ 
ganization looking toward industrial democracy. We 



129 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

have consistently maintained that the Americaniza¬ 
tion of industry will do away with Industrial Un¬ 
rest. Upon you rests the responsibility of applying 
the principles and spirit of Americanism to business. 
We believe in individualism, not only in the sense of 
human personality, but as applied to industrial units. 
Employers cannot solve this question by mass action 
anymore than the workers can. Each employer must 
settle his troubles in his own particular plant. Thus 
one by one will the problem of the entire country 
be solved. Will you stand up and tell the world 
that you have brains and ambition enough to launch 
and successfully manage the business end of a great 
industry and yet you are without sufficient gray 
matter and initiative to apply American principles 
to the management of men? You are the logical 
labor leader. Either you will organize for this task, 
(if organization is necessary) or outsiders will do the 
job for you and to the detriment of all concerned. 

The spirit in which you face this question is after 
all the most important consideration. No system of 
organization can succeed unless the spirit of democ¬ 
racy and the square deal inspires your action. 

Second. TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC:. It is not 
easy to draw a line of demarcation between the em¬ 
ployer, the worker, and the general public. The em¬ 
ployer and employee are members of the public. 


130 Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

They suffer from their own intemperance though 
they cannot always see it. Nevertheless for purposes 
of loose thinking we may recognize a distinction be¬ 
tween these elements. Employers represent about 
one and one-half per cent of our population. Or¬ 
ganized labor about six per cent. The general public 
ninety-two and one-half (92^%) per cent. In 
other words employers number around one million 
six hundred and fifty thousand, organized labor em¬ 
braces six million six hundred thousand (this is a 
generous figure). The public is about 101,750,000. 
Now this 101,750,000 have been permitting the 8,- 
250,000 of employers and organized labor to run this 
country about as they pleased. What a good natured 
lot of “lubbers” we are! It is high time we awoke. 
Public opinion is a final court of sufficient jurisdic¬ 
tion and power to settle these warring elements, if 
they will not voluntarily settle their troubles on 
American principles. 

We appeal to you to arouse yourself against the 
un-American Closed Shop. The Declaration of In¬ 
dependence announces the inalienable right of every 
citizen “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi¬ 
ness. ’ 5 The Constitution of the country protects this 
right. Labor leaders have been guilty of sentenc¬ 
ing men to ninety-nine years expulsion from their 
union for the most trivial offenses. If all the in- 


131 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 

dustrial life of America was under the autocracy of 
the Closed Shop these men, their wives and helpless 
children, would have been sentenced to starvation, 
murder or suicide. Are you going to stand quietly 
by and see even the humblest among us, deprived 
of life and liberty in this high handed fashion? The 
question is not debatable. No one is denying the 
right of any man to join any church, lodge or union 
he may desire. On the other hand no one is to be 
forced in this free land, on penalty of starvation or 
worse, into uniting with any lodge, church or union. 
To destroy this freedom of citizenship is slavery. 
You must face the task of compelling labor leaders 
and workers to realize that a man might better be 
a scab, than a traitor to the plainest and most fun¬ 
damental rights of citizenship. 

Third. TO EMPLOYEES. Possibly the writer 
has offended you. He has not done so maliciously. 

The greatest opportunity in our history to forge 
ahead as workers is smiling upon us and this writer 
does not take kindly to the high salaried labor auto¬ 
crats who would hinder our progress and lead us to 
reaction and ruin. We know your heart. We know 
you think things you would not express before your 
fellows. This is your weakness. Assert your Ameri¬ 
can manhood. You must have learned by now that 
our cause gains nothing by extreme and unjust 


132 


Cause and Cure of Industrial Unrest 


tactics. Do not submit to the Bossism of any labor 
dictator. Remember the vast majority of America’s 
toilers are unorganized. Be more afraid of being 
a traitor than a scab. Be an American and success 
will crown your efforts. 













































































































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